Honours even at St James' Park and round at our house as Cockneys and Geordies - or at least two teams representing them - fought out an exciting draw.

Probably both sets of fans will point to individual instances in which a victory could have been snatched - both sides probably had valid penalty claims turned down, for example - but a draw was probably a fair result as want-away keeper Shay Given made a stunning save from Jack Collison while Newcastle had their chances too particularly in the closing stages.

Despite going behind to the inevitable Michael Owen goal - he really does love to score against the Hammers - West Ham struck back through Craig Bellamy before the break and went ahead when Carlton Cole sprung a poor offside trap to power the claret and blue ahead.

However, youngster Tony Carroll headed an equaliser after 78 minutes to ensure a share of the spoils although a superb late tackle by Matthew Upson denied Gutierrez with the last shot of the game.

This result keeps West Ham firmly in 10th place with Newcastle tucked in just behind them; strange then that the media - not happy unless West Ham are being slated in some way - described this as a relegation battle. On this showing, and providing the Bellamy and Parker rumours are shown to be just that, it's probably the Hammers who can look forward to a better second half of the season.