Newcastle United 1, Queen's Park Rangers 1

Oct 1 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

IF the Championship is a war of attrition, Newcastle United may have recruited the perfect foot soldier in Marlon Harewood.

The bruising, bustling hulk of a striker rescued a below-par United on his home debut with the simplest of tap-ins – and his mere presence seemed to unsettle a QPR side that looked comfortable for long periods of a frustrating night for Chris Hughton’s table-toppers.

No one would accuse Harewood of being a flair player but what he looks in finesse he makes up for in lung-busting effort and commitment, and his physicality gives United the sort of muscle they might need over this marathon season.

This was a night when preconceptions about the Championship being a cakewalk for United’s pedigree performers were at least partially undermined. A fit, mobile and motivated QPR caused an under-whelming home side plenty of problems and but for the extra dimension that Harewood brought to their attack, United would have become the third of the early Championship pacesetters to suffer a reverse this week.

There will be nights like this as the season plays out to its long, tortuous conclusion. Hughton admitted on Tuesday he had been slightly taken aback when one of his assistants informed him just how many more games there were to go.

But at least United managed to tough it out, a night of gnawing inconsistency redeemed by a first league goal for 18 months by debutant Harewood.

The on-loan striker had chances to win it but United did not deserve more than an equal share of the spoils from a night that started badly and rarely burst into life.