Boss Roy Keane was disappointed to leave St James’ Park with only a draw after the Blues’ impressive display against champions Newcastle United. The Town manager singled young striker Connor Wickham out for praise.
Keane said: "We did well. Obviously, we have to look at whether Newcastle were in holiday mode - maybe some of them were - but I am disappointed with a draw, so if we had lost the game, I would have been properly upset.
"I thought we deserved it. We had the better of the chances and scored two good goals, but we gave a bad second goal away. But there were a lot of positives.
"Connor scored a top goal and his general forward play was very good and we had some good spells in the game.
"Our fans were terrific for us again and taking a point from Newcastle is a sign of the progress we have made when you think back to the result against them at our place earlier in the season.
"We have got a long way to go yet until we can match Newcastle though. You only have to look at their bench with international players like Nicky Butt, Joey Barton and Alan Smith on there to see the difference."
Meanwhile, chief executive Simon Clegg has reiterated that Keane will be at the club next season but conceded that the side needs to perform significantly better next season: "There is a timescale to everything and as far as the manager is concerned it is acute with his contract ending in 14 months' time.
"We are working for an owner who is an extremely successful businessman and one that is not used to failure.
"Roy will here next season. He is committed to the club and the club is committed to him.
"We are planning for the summer and into next season. On players that could be coming in and those we feel ought to move on."
Clegg says Marcus Evans remains committed to getting the club promoted: "Marcus’s aims have not differed and he will continue to invest to take this great club back to the Premier League.
"But no budget for next season has been agreed yet and he does not have a bottomless pit of money.”
Newcastle boss Chris Hughton knows that his side face a difficult 2010/11 in the Premier League: "We know, of course, it will be a very tough season because we are in a very, very tough league.
"You have to look forward to it. As a manager, as a group of players, as a club, it's where we want to be and we have worked very hard for it, so you have to look forward to it."