In his third appearance in a black and white shirt, the 31-year-old chose former club Middlesbrough as his first victims when he turned Jonathan Woodgate to blast his side into a potentially match-winning position and silence the jeers from the Riverside stands.

However, Julio Arca's equaliser ensured the Teessiders did not suffer a second successive Barclays Premier League defeat on home turf as an eventful afternoon on ended all square.

For Magpies boss Sam Allardyce, who had challenged his summer signing to get him a winning goal, Viduka's strike was a step in the right direction, and along with Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Shola Ameobi, he will hope there is much, much more to come.

But the Australia international, who had insisted he would not over-celebrate if he found the back of the net, was relieved simply to have got off the mark.

He said: "I was so happy and excited when it went in, I really didn't know what to do. I suppose you could say I toned my celebrations down.

"But yes, it was special to me coming to the Riverside and scoring my first goal for Newcastle United - and it goes without saying that I'm hoping it was the first of many.

"I'm very pleased about it. It was nice to get off the mark. It was very important for me."

But for Arca's 80th-minute strike, Viduka would have claimed the headlines, although Frenchman Charles N'Zogbia might have felt justifiably aggrieved had he done so.

It was the makeshift Newcastle left-back who opened the scoring with 22 minutes gone, cutting inside to send a curling right-foot drive sailing over Mark Schwarzer and into the top corner.

But a Boro side in which Woodgate and debutant Luke Young were included with just a couple of days' training apiece under their belts after injury, were nothing if not dogged, and got themselves back into the game within six minutes.

Mido, who was incensed by the treatment he received from the travelling supporters, exacted full revenge when he ran on to Fabio Rochemback's through-ball and rounded Steve Harper to level.

Boro then took control of the game until the visitors made their final push, with Viduka setting the stage for Sunderland old boy Arca to send the home supporters away happy.

Substitute Michael Owen might have won it at the death, but flicked an N'Zogbia free-kick straight at Schwarzer.

Allardyce later played down Martins' disgruntled disappearance straight down the tunnel when he was replaced by Owen.

Earlier in the day the club insisted they had received no offers for him, and Allardyce also moved to end speculation over N'Zogbia's future.

He said: "There will be no chance of him leaving our football club, that's for sure."

Allardyce's disappointment at his side's failure to hold on to the lead at the Riverside was compounded by injuries to Stephen Carr and Peter Ramage which will see him step up his transfer activity this week, with Bolton's Abdoulaye Faye seemingly destined for St James' Park.

However, in the meantime, he will continue, like many of his predecessors, to work on the club's depressing and long-standing defensive frailty.

Midfielder James Milner knows just how costly that has been in recent seasons.

He said: "To come away from Middlesbrough with a point and be disappointed shows we are moving in the right direction.

"It was gutting to be ahead twice and come away with a point. You hope you can win when you do that.

"We need to get into a winning habit and work on that.

"After three games, we are unbeaten, which is good. But it would be nice to have two wins and a draw, which we feel we should have.

"It will come and we are only three games in. But once we get the winning habit going, we will grow and develop our confidence."