By Lee Ryder @ Sport City, Manchester
Joey Barton continued his comeback tonight in the shadow of his old stamping ground with a 45 minute run out against Manchester City.
Newcastle United headed to the North West with a strong squad as Barton kicked a ball again for the first time in match action since the July friendly with Carlisle United.
The Scouse midfielder got through 45 minutes at the Eastlands complex but looked lively during a first half run out.
Barton was booed by the home crowd of 500 in Manchester on a night when City's rivals took on Roma in the Champions League at Old Trafford in front of over 68,000 - but the England international took it all in his stride.
Despite speculation in the morning papers that Frenchman Ousmane Dabo would be involved in a potential clash with Barton the out of favour Man City player wasn't even in the stands as United lined up next door to the City of Manchester Stadium.
Also in the side tonight were Turkish ace Emre, Spanish full-back Jose Enrique and Senegal international midfield man Abdoulaye Faye - all of them pushing for a start in Sunday's clash with Everton at St James' Park.
That of course was the venue where Newcastle's first team had crashed to a 3-1 defeat on Saturday.
Just like the first team United's second string shadowed their senior counterparts and played a 4-3-3 formation but created some decent chances.
Newcastle could have had a penalty when Matty Pattison burst into the box before being shoved in the back by Garry Breen however local ref P Quinn didn't want to know and waved play on.
City responded offensively and Toon goalie Fraser Forster had to be in top form to deny Ashley Grimes with a double save on 14 minutes and that was followed up with a save from Ched Evans on the 25 minute mark.
Barton's first real contribution came when he played in Jonny Godsmark but his shot was parried away by City keeper Andreas Isaksson on the half hour.
And it resulted in City taking the lead when Evans was sent clean through before nutmegging Forster to open the scores just 30 seconds later.
Frank Danquah was then fouled on the edge of the penalty area on 33 minutes with Emre calmly curling the ball in off the bar with his left foot to make it 1-1.
Five minutes before the break Barton managed to keep his cool when after going up for a header with City captain Sam Williamson the home skipper pushed his hands into the Toon midfielder's face, again the incident going unpunished by P Quinn.
In the second half City edged their way back in front when Grimes made the most of a scramble to stab it past Forster from close range with 57 minutes played.
But to go with the topsy turvy nature of the game United levelled it when Enrique's cross from the left was swept home from close range by sub Mark Doninger who made it 2-2 on 65 minutes.
And that was how it ended as Faye, Enrique and Emre got 90 minutes under their belts.
MAN CITY Isaksson, Logan, Williamson, McDonald, Breen, Laird, Etuhu (Clayton 72), Grimes, Evans, Daly, Moore.
Subs: Clayton, Martin, Vidal, Marshall, Poole.
NEWCASTLE: Forster, Bertram, Edgar (Morris 85), Faye, Enrique, LuaLua, Emre, Barton (Doninger 46), Pattison, Godsmark, Danquah (Donaldson 46).
Subs: Morris, Cook, Doninger, Donaldson, Lough.
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