Magpies to give Viduka time to ease back in

Mark Viduka will not be rushed back into Newcastle United's starting line-up after the striker made his long-awaited return from injury.

Viduka twice came close to snatching a late winner in a tense derby stalemate at his former club Middlesbrough as the Australian international emerged unscathed as a second-half substitute in his first appearance for more than six months.

Newcastle will not risk the 33-year-old breaking down as he works his way back to full match fitness after a career-threatening Achilles problem, and coach Chris Hughton said: “We know Mark's qualities as a player but he's not had so many minutes of match play.

“He's available and has done a fair amount of training but he just hasn't had the match play. For us the most important thing now is to get him to a fitness level.”

Despite an understandable lack of match sharpness, Viduka was only denied a match-winning contribution by David Wheater's desperate point-blank block, before Ross Turnbull kept out the former Leeds forward's injury-time effort.

Hughton added: “Mark's a player you can play off and into, he has that quality but he hasn't had so much match play recently. As each day goes by and with each training session by he'll get fitter and fitter and we've got to make sure we use him right.”

Newcastle leap-frogged local rivals Sunderland and out of the bottom three as they earned a point in their first game since interim manager Joe Kinnear signed a new contract until the end of the season.

Hughton played down a display of petulance from Obafemi Martins, Newcastle's most potent attacking threat who struck the bar before the break, but who stormed down straight down the tunnel after being hauled off for Viduka with 25 minutes left.

Hughton insisted: “Oba's okay. Any issues like that are always dealt with in-house and that's the correct way to do it.

“What we have at the moment is a little more competition for places up front, which is what we've been striving for in the last few months. You want players to be disappointed at coming off and certainly not to be happy.”

Gareth Southgate backed out of touch Middlesbrough striker Afonso Alves to come good sooner rather than later after the club record 12-million-pound signing drew his latest blank.

The Brazilian international has scored just three times this season with his last goal arriving more than a month ago.

But the Boro manager, who expects to welcome midfielder Gary O'Neil back from a hamstring strain for this Saturday's trip to Hull City, said: “Afonso wants to score and he's desperate to do well.

“He got eased out too easily a couple of times but he looked a real threat and it's coming for him. He's got the hunger to do well and he'll do well.”

Southgate welcomed his former team-mate Viduka back to the Riverside Stadium, and joked: “We're upset with Mark, he hasn't played all year and then he's suddenly fit to face us, I thought he was my mate! I'm sure he'll poke his head in and will have a drink before he goes.”