Atromitos 1 Newcastle 1: Taylor stunner bails out Toon after Pardew's men stutter

On their return to European football on Thursday night, Newcastle United emerged from the Euro crisis in Greece unscathed.

A Newcastle squad already stretched by the demands of the Barclays Premier League, a busy summer and this Europa League play-off will return to London this afternoon after a five-hour flight and have less than 24 hours to prepare for Saturday’s clash at Chelsea.
It is the ground where Newcastle won 2-0 last season, and Papiss Cisse scored one of the best goals in Premier League history. And it is the fixture which has really  troubled Alan Pardew this week.The Newcastle manager made nine changes to his side for last night’s clash but was forced to play Cisse as Shola and Sammy Ameobi were injured, and because he was unwilling to throw teenager Adam Campbell in from the start.

Not on my watch: Ryan Taylor blasts in the equaliser and is congratulated by boss Alan Pardew (below)

Taylor with Pardew

MATCH FACTS

Atromitos (4-1-4-1): Itandje 7; Skondras 6, Fytanidis 6, Lazaridis 6, Giannoulis 7 (Karagounis 87min); Iglesias 6; Beljic 7 (Chumbinho 61, 6), Dimoutsos 6, Brito 6, Epstein 7; Kuqi 5 (Karamanos 61).
Subs not used: Radman, Taylaridis, Garcia, Nastos.
Scorer: Epstein 24.
Newcastle (4-5-1): Harper 7; Tavernier 5, Williamson 6, Perch 7, R Taylor 7; Obertan 5, Bigirimana 6, Anita 6, Gosling 6 (Amalfitano 64, 7), Marveaux 6 (Gutierrez 71, 6); Cisse 6 (Campbell 77).
Subs not used: Santon, Cabaye, S Taylor, Krul.
Scorer: R Taylor 45.
Man of the match: James Perch.
Referee: Alon Yefet (Israel) 6.
Attendance: 4,872.

The 17-year-old still managed 13 minutes as Cisse’s late replacement, becoming the club’s youngest European debutant by 64 days and taking Andy Carroll’s record on the night he was again left redundant with Liverpool.
This evening Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba, Hatem Ben Arfa and Fabricio Coloccini will join up with the Newcastle squad ahead of tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off  and can all expect to start at Stamford Bridge.
With the exception of suspended Ben Arfa, they will feature in Thursday’s second leg.
Pardew said: ‘We will have more rest between Thursday and the Aston Villa game which will help.
‘We will put a team out to get us through the tie and they have shown it won’t be a pushover or a foregone conclusion. We got that team just about right and now we have to get next Thursday right.
‘Our pre-season prepared us well. We worked on retaining the ball because in Europe the tempo is slower and you have to be more patient and overall our ball retention was first-class, as we’d shown at Hartlepool and Braga.
‘It was difficult out there and the opposition had some good players who caused us some problems early on. The younger players struggled with that but I was very pleased with them all. It gives us a great chance to progress and go through and I would expect us to do that.

Nice one: Taylor (right) celebrates with his team-mates

Opener: Atromitos' Denis Epstein (right) celebrates his goal with Konstantinos Giannoulis

‘I was just a little bit disappointed we didn’t get the winner as we looked more likely but overall I am very pleased.’
On a stifling night, after temperatures had soared to almost 100°F during the day in the Greek capital, Newcastle fell behind in the 24th minute after surviving a  couple of early scares.
Atromitos’s wily coach Dusan Bajevic targeted right back James Tavernier on his European debut so when Nikola Beljic played a deep pass over the youngster’s head for the umpteenth time, Denis Epstein was certain to profit eventually. The German winger neatly tapped his first-time shot past Steve Harper as the veteran keeper advanced from his line.
Harper was hardly troubled after that, although Shefki Kuqi’s younger brother Njazi missed the target with one close-range header and Ioannis Skondras fired in a routine free-kick.

On the road: Newcastle fans celebrate Taylor's equaliser

The home side’s best chance fell to full back Konstantinos  Giannoulis in the dying minutes when he raced into the area to meet a half-volley which flew into the 70 Newcastle loyalists who had made the trip and were earlier rewarded with a Ryan Taylor speciality in front of them.
A year and three days after he had floated his derby winner over the Sunderland wall, Newcastle’s set piece expert was at it again,  firing a curling shot beyond the reach of former Liverpool keeper Charles Itandje, who had used his feet to keep out an earlier effort from Taylor.
The equaliser was the last kick of the first half but not Newcastle’s first or last chance. Cisse could have done better with two half-chances and Gabriel Obertan had a wonderful opportunity but fired over too.

More to come: Pardew will demand improvement in the second leg

Pardew was still satisfied. ‘It was a great day for us,’ he said. ‘I wanted Adam Campbell to have that youngest player tag. He has a great future, is a lovely lad and a local lad. The most important thing was winning the game. I can’t protect everybody but we tried to restrict Papiss’s work rate.’
Last word went to Bajevic, who said: ‘Newcastle have the advantage but that does not mean we are going there to surrender.’
Pardew will ensure he does not have the last word next week.

Scrap: James Perch fights for the ball with Epstein