On a night that marked the first anniversary of Newcastle United's invigorating 3-2 defeat of Barcelona, one of the lowest crowds in years at St James' Park witnessed one of their most disappointing performances.
Nikos Dabizas's late winner and a general upping of the tempo should not be allowed to camouflage what was a dreadful display, one that should have been much better after Alan Shearer's fourth goal in as many games.
The one-goal lead Newcastle take to Belgrade may yet be enough to see them through, but Ruud Gullit and the 26,599 spectators will know that the changes have to come quick.
Stephane Guivarc'h has yet to start a game for Gullit and yet again the striker had to be content with a place on the bench. Philippe Albert was sitting alongside him, the only change from the side that beat Southampton 4-0 on Saturday; Dabizas came in.
In the 11th minute, Robert Lee slipped a neat pass to Stuart Pearce breaking forward from leftback; his equally tidy chip left Shearer in space 12 yards out and after taking two strides the England captain calmly side-footed the ball over the advancing Nikola Damjanac.
After the goal the ground fell into a now familiar slumber, though, the only noise being the groans at the umpteenth misplaced pass of Gary Speed's career on Tyneside. Just before the whistle for the interval, the silence inside was such that Shearer could be heard clearly shouting instructions at his midfielders. "Do it early," was his plea and in the quest for zip and vitality, Gullit sent on Nolberto Solano for the tepid Andreas Andersson. The captain of Peru instantly made a difference.
A careless ball by Laurent Charvet sent Menad Bjekovic racing into the Newcastle area and as he surged past Pearce, his legs were taken. Vuk Rasovic steered the penalty kick past Shay Given.
Belatedly Newcastle roused themselves and two minutes after the equaliser the one-goal advantage was restored when Dabizas rose to put a looping header in from Stephen Glass's cross.
NEWCASTLE: Given, Watson, Pearce, Dabi zas, Charvet, Lee, Ketsbaia, Speed, Glass, Andersson (Solano 45), Shearer. Subs Not Used: Perez, Pistone, Gillespie, Barton, Guiv arc'h, Albert. Goals: Shearer 12, Dabizas 71.
PARTIZAN BELGRADE: Damjanac, Raso vic, Savic, Krstajic, Trobok, Ivic (Pazin 73), S. Ilic, Tomic, Stojanoski, Bjekovic (Stojisavljevic 86), Obradovic. Subs Not Used: R. Ilic, Duljaj, Gerasimovski, Tesovic, Svetlicic. Booked: Tom ic, Bjekovic, Pazin. Goal: Rasovic 69 pen.
Referee: D Jol (Holland).
