IT was scrappy, nervous and at times fortunate, but a draw at Blackpool was still worth celebrating.

Taking a point from a side in freefall was nothing like the achievement of frustrating a team heading for trophy presentations and parties, as the Magpies had four days earlier. But a holiday trip to a misty seaside was a character test for a Newcastle United side who had reached their 40-point comfort zone against Manchester United. They passed it.

As the first they had ever started in the Premier League relegation zone, it was a game Blackpool desperately needed to win. Newcastle didn’t.

Three more points would have been nice, a draw handy, but neither would have had much bearing on a very good season for a club whose previous trip to Bloomfield Road was in much-reduced circumstances.

Four days after the glamour – and graft – of a 0-0 draw at home to Manchester United, Newcastle’s injury-hit squad could easily have thrown the beach towel in. Thankfully, they showed respect for the 2,100 fans who spent their Easter weekend at the tacky seaside town. The football tourists were not treated to an exhibition of the beautiful game, but it was at least fully committed.

That ought to be a minimum requirement in return for being transformed into 20-something millionaires but fortunately, football is played by humans. Getting up for a meaningless end-of-season away game is not quite as easy as giving everything against the country’s best in front of the television cameras and 50,000 of your own supporters. Newcastle have too often come a cropper in low-key encounters.

They did not play well on Saturday, either. Charlie Adam hit the post, and while two Blackpool penalty appeals were optimistic, another should have been granted. Dudley Campbell, so often a scourge of North East teams, hit the side-netting with a header he ought to have converted. But losing a lead taken against the run of play did not prompt the surrender often seen from players whose work for the season is essentially done.

Having enjoyed being everyone’s favourite underdogs in the autumn, small-club paranoia is starting to get the better of Ian Holloway. It was easy to see why in the eighth minute.

The otherwise excellent Mike Williamson was a fraction of a second late in tackling Campbell, whose touch had taken the ball away from him. Williamson kicked the spot it had left and “DJ” hit the deck. Martin Atkinson waved away the penalty appeals, Holloway went ballistic.

The second incident did not warrant punishment, even if the defending that led to it did. Tight to the touchline, José Enrique played an inexcusable pass across his own area. Campbell reached it first, but Tim Krul took the ball cleanly off his toes. The left-back’s brainstorm was in keeping with recent performances. If this is bad form rather than a lack of motivation from a player who has put off contract talks, it is unfortunately timed.

Joey Barton, another yet to commit his future, was also off-colour despite laying on Peter Løvenkrands’ goal, but gave the impression of trying too hard, rather than the opposite. Kevin Nolan laboured in midfield, looking like his fitness had not benefited from a two-match break through suspension, and further hampered by a groin niggle.

The flow of the opening quarter of an hour had mostly been in Krul’s direction. The hosts were dangerous on the break, as when Løvenkrands threaded a lovely ball to Shola Ameobi, only for the striker to be closed down by Neil Eardley as he ran out of space behind Alex Baptiste.

Instead, the telling pass was played by Adam – to Barton. When the Merseysider helped it on Løvenkrands tried his luck. Twenty-five yards out, his finish could scarcely have been more precise.

Campbell’s 32nd-minute equaliser was fortunate, looping off his thigh and over Krul before being cleared by Enrique. The Spaniard had stationed himself behind the line and it looked as if the ball had crossed it before his head made contact.

Although laughable, the third penalty appeal, when Danny Simpson’s arm fell on the ball as he tumbled in the area, was further encouragement for Blackpool. Krul saved well from Baptiste at another corner, and Campbell ought to have scored from Matt Phillips’ cross.

Blackpool’s intensity tailed off in the second half, though Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini still had to play well to keep them at bay. Tioté’s impetuosity in the tackle gave the Tangerines a few sights at goal from set pieces, but it was in open play that Adam nearly claimed the winner, striking the base of the woodwork from the edge of the area.

Stephen Ireland’s introduction reinforced Newcastle’s midfield but, for the second time that week, he was too rusty to make the most of a difficult chance, unable to redirect a Jonás Gutiérrez centre which came across him.

Not the joyous celebration of Easter 2010, but a small step in the right direction.