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Let us start at the very end, when the final whistle blew and a delighted Kevin Keegan disappeared into a huddle with his coaching staff while Sir Alex Ferguson wore the look of a man who had just missed the last bus home. The goals and the points had been shared, but the elation of Newcastle United’s supporters was in stark contrast to the mood among the home fans, who may have been wondering what kind of deficit their team will face when they return to Old Trafford in late September.

By a quirk of the fixture list, complicated by their participation in the Uefa Super Cup against Zenit St Petersburg on August 29, in Monaco, United do not have another home game in the Barclays Premier League until the visit of Bolton Wanderers on September 27, by which time they will have been to Portsmouth, Liverpool and Chelsea without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo. This was not the game in which they would have expected to drop points in a tough start to the season, but, with Ronaldo sidelined, Carlos Tévez absent because of a family bereavement and Dimitar Berbatov yet to complete his protracted move from Tottenham Hotspur, they lacked the wit and the penetration to break down a surprisingly spirited Newcastle.

A draw at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season is not necessarily a portent for a successful campaign, as Reading’s experience last term showed, but, for Keegan, it was worth celebrating. Newcastle were lucky to meet the European champions on an off-day, but, with his team taking an early lead through Obafemi Martins and then reasserting themselves after Darren Fletcher’s equaliser, Keegan was entitled to laud the performance of his side, not least his three new signings, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Guthrie and Jonas Guttiérez.

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“It was a good performance and I thought we thoroughly deserved a draw,” Keegan said. “You can’t afford to carry anyone when you come here; the attitude has to be spot-on. But I had a really good feeling after watching them train on Saturday. The attitude was spot-on and I’ve told them in the dressing-room that if they can come here and do that, they can go anywhere and do it.”

Such statements will have Newcastle’s supporters fantasising about the good times returning to Tyneside and, while they should not get too far ahead of themselves, the performances of their three new players were encouraging. Coloccini, who completed his £10 million move from Deportivo La Coruña on Friday, had an uncomfortable start in the centre of defence, but improved as the afternoon went on; Guthrie, who failed to make the grade at Liverpool, performed with diligence and composure in midfield; and Guttiérez showed that there is more to him than a frankly disturbing obsession with Spider-Man.

At least four fans in the away end could be seen wearing Spider-Man costumes and, if this display, full of aggressive running, is a sign of things to come from the Argentina winger, fancy-dress shops on Tyneside can expect busy months ahead.

Newcastle had the temerity to take the lead on a ground where they lost 6-0 last season, with the incredulity of their supporters perceptible during the briefest of silences that preceded the celebratory roar. Guthrie swung over a corner from the right and, with Fletcher napping, Martins sent a firm header past Edwin van der Sar. Ferguson expressed alarm afterwards that a player of the Nigerian’s height (or rather lack of it) should have scored such a goal.

A strange performance from the home team was characterised by Fletcher. He scored United’s equalising goal in the 24th minute, darting ahead of Charles N’Zogbia to poke Ryan Giggs’s cross past Shay Given, and it was just as well he did score given that, as well as being at fault for Newcastle’s goal, the midfield player repeatedly incurred the wrath of Wayne Rooney during the first half.

Rooney started the game with great purpose, sending in a delicious cross from which Fraizer Campbell, who impressed on loan to Hull City last season, would have scored a debut goal had his header not caught Given on the forehead. Campbell was among the few positives for United, with the youngster again forcing Given into a more orthodox save in the second half, but it was asking a lot of him to step into the gap left by the absences of Tévez and Ronaldo and the continuing stalemate with Tottenham over Berbatov.

By the end, having replaced Giggs and Campbell with Rodrigo Possebon and Rafael Da Silva, two Brazilian teenagers, United had two full backs, Da Silva and Patrice Evra, operating on the wings and Rooney ever more isolated in attack. Apart from Vidic heading against the crossbar with 16 minutes remaining, United barely threatened in the second half and it was telling that, as their frustration grew, three United players were booked in the closing stages.

Not a great start for the champions, for whom a game of catchup beckons, but, reassuringly, the cavalry, Berbatov included, is on its way.

Man Utd ratings

(4-4-2) E van der Sar 5 W Brown Y 5 R Ferdinand 7 N Vidic 6 P Evra 6 D Fletcher 5 M Carrick 5 P Scholes 7 R Giggs 6 F Campbell Y 6 W Rooney Y 6. Substitutes: J O’Shea (for Carrick, 25min 5), R Possebon (for Giggs, 63 5), R Da Silva (for Campbell, 80) Not used T Kuszczak, G Neville, J Evans, D Gibson. Next: Portsmouth (a)

Newcastle ratings

(4-4-1-1) S Given 7 H Beye 6 S Taylor 7 F Coloccini 6 C N’Zogbia 5 J Milner 6 N Butt 6 D Guthrie 7 J Guttiérez 7 D Duff 5 O Martins 7. Substitutes not used: S Harper, J Enrique, S Bassong, D Edgar, Gérémi, A Smith, R Donaldson. Next: Bolton (h)