23 secs Jack Colback kicked off, knocking ball back to Jonjo Shelvey, whose flighted ball reached Aleksandar Mitrovic midway in the City half on the left flank. His header infield was picked up by DeAndre Yedlin who rode one tackle and released a short pass to Shelvey. 

Feeding Perez as the play switched out towards the right, Matt Ritchie held up play briefly before returning a pass inside to Colback, whose forward ball to Ayoze Perez was received just inside the box. With a neat first touch, the Spaniard turned and swept the ball past John Ruddy with a swift sidefoot in front of the River End. 1-0

12 mins A hopeful ball up to Cameron Jerome on the City left seemed routine for Jamaal Lascelles to deal with, but he fell to the ground leaving the striker plenty of time to pick out Jacob Murphy in the middle, who finished with ease from barely a yard out as Paul Dummett slid in behind him. 

It's difficult to judge whether Jerome made any contact with Lascelles to cause his tumble, but the referee saw nothing untoward and the Newcastle player made no obvious protest. 1-1

17 mins Another long ball up to Jerome was missed by both he and Lascelles, leaving Karl Darlow to make a routine clearance outside his box. However he "topped it" and helped the ball back towards his own goal, leaving Jerome the simple task of walking it into the net - Lascelles having rightly pulled up after Darlow came to intervene. 1-2

Half time: Canaries 2 Magpies 1

81 mins Alex Pritchard was adjudged to have impeded Mo Diame as the pair jumped to challenge for a half-cleared ball out of the City defence. Shelvey's free kick from the right side of the field across to the far post, who funnelled the ball back to Paul Dummett.

His first-time ball from the left passed over the head of the leaping Christian Atsu reached Ayoze Perez at the far post and his cross fell nicely for Jamaal Lascelles to run onto it and volley home from a narrow angle. 2-2

Full time: Canaries 2 Magpies 2

Norwich boss Alex Neil said:

"To be honest there are mixed emotions after that. Obviously you are not expecting to concede a goal in the first minute and we were really nervy in the first five minutes.

"But once we got our goal and then got ahead I thought we were excellent - the response from the players was top class.

"In the second half we started okay and then we started to drop deeper and deeper to protect what we had and the frustrating thing from our point of view is that we didn't see it out.

"It was a really good game, with two teams going toe to toe, not giving an inch and both trying to win it. In the end I thought a draw was a fair result."

About striker Nelson Oliveira:

"He needs a scan but if it is what I think it is he could be out for four to six weeks, which would obviously be a big blow for us."
 

Stats

Magpies @ Canaries - last 10: 2016/17 drew 2-2 Perez, Lascelles 2015/16 lost 2-3 Mitrovic 2 (1pen) 2013/14 drew 0-0 2012/13 drew 0-0 2011/12 lost 2-4 Ba 2 2004/05 lost 1-2 Kluivert 1994/95 lost 1-2 Fox (pen) 1993/94 won 2-1 Beardsley, Cole 1988/89 won 2-0 Mirandinha, O'Brien 1987/88 drew 1-1 P.Jackson United played out only their third league draw of the season and second away from home, following a 1-1 stalemate at Aston Villa back in September. They've now taken 35 points on the road from a possible 48 (11 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses). Jamaal Lascelles netted his second goal of the season and fourth as a Magpie, while Ayoze Perez now has eight in all competitions during 2016/17 and 22 from 106 appearances (68 starts). The Perez opener was the quickest goal by a Newcastle player in a competitive game since Alan Shearer took 11 seconds to make the net ripple at home to Manchester City in January 2003.  Ayoze was responsible for netting our third goal within the opening minute of play this season - and the fastest - this 23 second effort beating Jonjo Shelvey's 38 second strike at home to QPR and the Spaniard's own conversion at SJP against Ipswich Town in 59 seconds. Quickest competitive NUFC away goals since 1974*: (*extent of .com complete goal time records) Three minutes: Mar 1975 Geoff Nulty v Leeds United (a) Apr 1980 Brian Ferguson v QPR (a) Oct 1983 Kenny Wharton v Swansea City (a) Feb 1984 Kevin Keegan v Portsmouth (a) Mar 1984 Peter Beardsley v Fulham (a) Aug 1984 Steve Carney v Leicester City (a) Oct 1985 Paul Gascoigne v Aston Villa (a) Sep 1989 Mick Quinn v AFC Bournemouth (a) Oct 1991 Mick Quinn v Tranmere Rovers (a) Nov 1992 Gavin Peacock v Charlton Athletic (a) Apr 1994 Robert Lee v Liverpool (a) Apr 1994 Andy Cole v Leeds United (a) Jan 1998 Alan Shearer v Stevenage Borough (a) Apr 2000 Alan Shearer v Aston Villa (a) Oct 2004 Jermaine Jenas v Birmingham City (a) Nov 2006 Antoine Sibierski v Watford (a) Oct 2012 Yohan Cabaye v mackems (a) Two minutes: Mar 1979 Irving Nattrass v Oldham Athletic Sep 1984 Neil McDonald v QPR Feb 2006 Shola Ameobi v Aston Villa Feb 2009 Damien Duff v West Bromwich Albion  Aug 2009 Kevin Nolan v Crystal Palace Feb 2011 Peter Lovenkrands v Birmingham City One minute: Oct 1974 Malcolm Macdonald v QPR (13 seconds) Feb 2017 Ayoze Perez v Norwich City (23 seconds) Oct 1985 Tony Cunningham v Barnsley ( 42 seconds) Sep 1994 Robert Lee v Antwerp (53 seconds) Feb 1983 Imre Varadi v Fulham (tbc seconds but at least 30) PS: back in the mists of time (when goal times weren't always noted) first minute goals came from Alan Suddick v Swindon Town in Nov 1964 and Albert Shepherd v mackems in Apr 1909. It would also be remiss not to mention Jackie Milburn's 45 second effort in the 1955 FA Cup Final against Manchester City at Wembley. Recorded as the quickest goal we've scored in any senior game is Supermac's strike from the halfway line in a friendly away to St Johnstone in July 1972 - timed locally at four seconds.

Waffle

Having racked up their eleventh away victory of the season on Saturday thanks to a committed but patchy performance, a far more expansive Newcastle display on Tuesday night threatened to leave them empty-handed until the timely intervention of Jamaal Lascelles. 

Just nine minutes of normal time remained when the club captain volleyed home to salvage a point, after his own earlier blunder and an even bigger howler from Karl Darlow had wiped out a lead acquired thanks to our quickest away goal for over 42 years.   

There were only 23 seconds on the clock when Ayoze Perez ended a six man, eight pass, move by netting and had Mitrovic done better than hit the goalkeeper with his chance soon after then the visitors could have been out of sight before some latecomers had found their places in the stand.

By the 17th minute though the game had turned completely on its head after the Canaries received not one, but two Valentines Day gifts from the Magpies. 

A slip from Lascelles led to the leveller, Cameron Jerome able to centre from the City left for Jacob Murphy to walk the ball in. And within five minutes Jerome himself had put his side ahead, presented with an open goal after Darlow came out of his area and totally sliced his clearance.

That raised the noise levels and Norwich enjoyed their best period of the game as choruses of "On the Ball City" echoed around the ground and the visiting defence were pulled around for a time.

However it was far from one way traffic and Mitrovic continued to threaten, giving a far more focused performance than at Molineux but often lacking an outlet when balls were aimed at him.

The Serb went close with a header and later in the half shot against a post, as something resembling a repeat of our 4-3 triumph in the corresponding fixture looked a distinct possibility.  

Making one change from the side that won on Saturday - Perez replacing Mo Diame - Rafa Benitez resisted the temptation to tinker ahead of the second half and parity was almost instantly restored when Ritchie hit the underside of the crossbar following Yedlin's lung-busting run and cross. 

It remained 2-1 though, making this rather different to that which usually seen on the road this season - the hosts adopting the "what we have, we hold" approach that has characterised us everywhere from Bristol to Rotherham and Wolverhampton. 

Opting not to include ex-Ipswich striker Daryl Murphy (although he was goalless and winless in five visits here for East Anglian faceoffs), Diame, Christian Atsu and Dwight Gayle were all called off the bench - the latter returning after a six game absence through injury.

Pressed back, City resorted to spoiling tactics and blatant cheating; notably when Wes Hoolahan threw himself to the floor and claimed he'd been struck by Jonjo Shelvey. Referee Madley took no action after speaking to the nearby linesman however, lecturing the home player for what were Tayloresque amateur dramatics, but avoiding an apparently obvious booking for simulation. 

The pressure paid off when Lascelles thumped in the equaliser with a fine finish from a tight angle and as they had been the case on Tyneside in September, United looked intent on conjuring up a winning goal in the time remaining.

A golden chance fell to Perez, but his shot when through on goal was hopeful rather than clinical. Gayle's forward charge was then blocked by Jonathan Howson at the expense of a yellow card, allowing Shelvey a last opportunity from a dead ball situation - although not a shooting chance.

That was cleared and the final whistle sounded on our seventh failed attempt to win in Norfolk.

A point was the least we deserved but with Huddersfield, Reading, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday all winning, only Brighton's draw with Ipswich was a bonus. That helped keep us top but just five points behind are Huddersfield -  although our far superior goal difference is worth an extra point.

The eight day period in which we'll visit the Terriers, Seagulls and Royals looks absolutely pivotal to the outcome of this season for all of those sides and ourselves, but enough banana skin fixtures remain scattered across the programme to make every game relevant.

Taking four points from here and Wolves is a decent return, but two eminently winnable home games against Aston Villa and Bristol City need to be approached correctly by players and fans alike: the Robins frustrating us twice in the 2009/10 campaign and the Villans scabbing a point from the first meeting of the season and both games in 2015/16. High time they were howked. 

Biffa