ALAN PARDEW wanted to smooth things over with Newcastle United’s supporters at Selhurst Park, so in many respects a pretty uneventful scoring draw was the most suitable outcome – for him.

For the second match in a row his successor John Carver missed a golden opportunity to win over some of the Magpies fans doubting his appointment until the end of the campaign.

After Papiss Cisse had given Newcastle the lead out of the blue three minutes before half-time, hopes were raised that they could go on to claim the win that would have lifted them back into the Premier League’s top ten.

But then, just like Stoke did on Sunday, Crystal Palace found a way through to clinch a point when former Sunderland striker Fraizer Campbell applied the finish to substitute Yannick Bolasie’s cross 19 minutes before the end.

While that leveller left Pardew and Palace’s fans relatively satisfied - even if they looked as if they might win a fifth league game in six under him – the frustrations among the Newcastle supporters were far more apparent.

With cheeky chants of ‘Are you Pardew in disguise’ and ‘attack, attack, attack’ echoing from the away end mocking the negatively perceived late introductions of defender Paul Dummett and Mehdi Abeid, they knew there was not going to be a late away day winner for them to celebrate. Neither, though, was there any late drama at the other end for Pardew to enjoy or for them to curse.

Newcastle showed a willingness to move forward in the opening exchanges even if none of the attacks came to anything of real note.

Vurnon Anita was axed from the deep-lying midfield role and Sammy Ameobi left out of the squad altogether, as Carver freshened things up after the frustrating draw with Stoke on Sunday.

Cisse, despite interest from Al-Ahli ahead of the Middle East transfer deadline on Thursday, was asked to play as the lone striker and he hardly got a touch before the opener as the home side did what probing there was.

Joe Ledley had a header fly over from Jason Puncheon’s dangerous free-kick, while Wilfried Zaha tested Tim Krul after the forward was cleverly played in by Marouane Chamakh. The fact neither found the net should have encouraged Newcastle, but they created very little.

Puncheon was a constant threat on whichever flank he popped up; normally on the right. When he sent over a teasing centre from that side in the 35th minute, Fraizer Campbell, the former Sunderland man, glanced a lovely header beyond Krul only for the assistant referee’s flag for offside to rightly save Newcastle.

With the exception of an occasional foray from right-back Daryl Janmaat, Newcastle rarely looked like testing Julian Speroni, although he did have to come out to gather a cross from the Dutchman that could easily have caused problems.

Pardew, perhaps his only mistake of the opening half, was not concerned enough to counteract the Janmaat threat and that proved costly when he created a goal that arrived from pretty much nothing.

The former Feyenoord defender’s turn of pace got him beyond the pacy Zaha. There was still plenty of work to be done when he beat the man at the near post with his delivery and Cisse was on hand to apply the perfect headed finish into Speroni’s top left corner.

Celebrations had to be cut short when an object, which appeared to be a coin, was thrown from the home end and it hit Fabricio Coloccini. Despite the incident, he was able to get on with the game and turn in a solid display alongside the less effective Mike Williamson.

Palace, who saw a Campbell header fly over seconds after the restart, did increase the tempo as the minutes ticked by in search of an equaliser but the visitors’ defensive line seemed capable of keeping Zaha and Co at bay; even if it did mean couple of cautions.

While Colback and Sissoko, assisted by Yoan Gouffran, Ayoze Perez and Remy Cabella, did their best to track the Palace shirts, that enabled the back four to mop things up whenever anything did find its way into the Newcastle box. Or that was the case until Bolasie’s introduction.

Pardew had only put the Congo international on the pitch three minutes before he picked up possession after an error from Massadio Haidara to tee up the equaliser. As Bolasie whipped in a lovely centre, Campbell worked his free of Williamson and slid in to finish lowly beyond Krul.

Palace would have won it too had it not been for the goalkeeper’s excellent low save to his right to stop Brede Hangeland’s header from finding the bottom corner late on.