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Newcastle's Premier League season belatedly kicked into gear at the fourth attempt on Monday evening at Goodison - although only after 45 minutes that raised questions over the desire and commitment of Alan Pardew's side, and even his ability to organise or inspire those selected.   

Our opening trio of domestic fixtures had produced a win, a draw and a defeat but precious little in the way of coherent team play; a situation only partly excused by the absence of kingpins such as Cheick Tiote, with many of those on show looking unable or unwilling to go the extra kilometre.

Whatever was served up against Spurs, Chelsea and Villa though was infinitely preferable to the listless and uninterested display here that gave an Everton side showing only a modicum of pace, movement and direction the appearance of world beaters. We looked like panel beaters. 

Our last 2-2 draw here had come back in the 2008/09 relegation season when Joe Kinnear was forced to watch his new charges from the Directors Box due to an unserved touchline ban from four years earlier, missing Steven Taylor's 45th minute goal due to being en route to the away dressing room to administer what is technically known as a right rollicking. Or something like that.

Occupying a similar naughty seat this time was Alan Pardew, who made his trip down the backstairs around the time that Nikica Jelavic admitted defeat and came off, having earlier crashed into an upright when netting with a rebound from an offside position. 

And much as our second half resurgence could be attributed to alterations in personnel, tactics and attitude though, the loss of the Croatian forward was also a key factor. His departure deprived David Moyes of a player who could not only hold up the ball and bring colleagues into play, but also had the ability to unsettle our defence, as he had done to good effect back in May.

With him, Everton looked a good deal more ordinary and the much-hyped pair of Pienaar and Fellaini failed to stamp their alleged authority on the game, as the home side were made to pay for only scoring once during a first half that they thoroughly dominated. Curbing the forward runs of Leighton Baines was also a contributory factor in our getting something from the game.  

And although the Goodison Shola (aka Anichebe) had one of his "on" nights, the appearance from the bench of Demba Ba was to be the real headline maker in terms of "inspired" substitutions.

Papiss Cisse had spurned almost the only chance of the first half when the ball fell to him on the volley at the back post but he poked his effort wide. There were no such problems for his Senegal colleague though when he had the ball in the back of the net with his first meaningful touch. 

That brought up Newcastle's 1,000th Premier League goal and it was an effort to rival memorable efforts from Les Ferdinand, Kieron Dyer, Laurent Robert and Hatem Ben Arfa on this ground.

A questionable offside flag then denied Fellaini a goal when slotting the ball home, before the main talking point of the game saw Harper pull off a magnificent point-blank save from Anichebe to tip the ball onto the bar, Williamson clearing from inside the goal with the ball possibly over the line.

The linesman failed to flag and United took advantage to break clear, Pienaar clipping Ben Arfa's heel in the centre circle but failing to prevent the Frenchman racing away clean through on goal. To his - and our - consternation though, referee Jones pulled back the play to book Pienaar - maybe the worst failure to allow an advantage since Robert Lee's shot from the halfway line at home to Brentford.

Anichebe then popped up with what looked like a late winner though to leave TV commentators proclaiming that justice had been done. And to be honest, after our apparent sulkiness of the first half, we'd have taken comfort from the second half improvement even if we'd left pointless. 

Once again though, this team's capacity to spring pleasant surprises has continued into this campaign and a whack upfield was enough to leave the home defence all at sea and Ba kissing the ground once again.

Quite simply, the second 45 minutes of this game were the first time that we've looked like a football team since the win at Chelsea in May. And to have done that (and come from behind twice) without messrs Krul, Coloccini and Tiote makes this a precious point gained and something tangible to build on.

One loss in four league outings with eminently winnable contests against Norwich and Reading to follow is a fair return for a side with injury issues who have looked sluggish. Gradually the individual performances are coming together though, with Santon impressive again tonight as he was against Villa and signs that Cabaye is getting his act together.

As for the conundrum of how to placate our two main forwards, there was at least some sign tonight of development when the pair played together, with less evidence of duplicating runs plus the odd  knock on etc. suggesting a semblance of understanding, even if it's confined to the pitch.

The manager seems to have a job on his hands managing not only the expectations of his superiors and the fans, but also that of the players. Having kept his squad together during the transfer window, Pardew's next job is to keep them going in the same direction. Tonight showed that it's achievable.

Biffa