Andrew Harper repaid the faith Newcastle coach Lee Sterrey showed in him with the equaliser in its 2-2 National Soccer League draw with UTS Sydney Olympic at Belmore Sports Ground today.
Harper put away a powerful header in the 71st minute from Vasko Trpcevski's perfect cross, giving him 99 NSL goals.
However, Olympic will rue the dismissal of midfielder Scott Thomas just two minutes after halftime, having gone into the break with a 2-1 lead.
Thomas' sending off for what could only be described as two fairly innocuous yellow cards, gave Newcastle the impetus to attack and eventually yielded Harper's equaliser.
Try as they might, Olympic's 10 men pressed home valiantly in the last 10 minutes but were held by Newcastle's composed defence.
Newcastle took a shock lead in the 15th minute when a corner by Trpcevski was floated to the far post and Mark Wilson climbed high to head home with Olympic keeper George Bouhoutsos stranded.
However, the Breakers' advantage was short-lived when a great flick by Pablo Cardozo found Ante Juric running at full pace into the penalty box. Jurix finished superbly.
The remainder of the half resulted in chances few and far between, with only a Greg Owens drive forcing Bouhoutsos to tip over the bar.
But right on the stroke of halftime, a Cardozo cross found an unmarked Chris Kalantzis, who headed powerfully home from 10 metres.
Following Thomas' dismissal, Newcastle tried valiantly to open up the game while Olympic looked to counter-attack at every opportunity.
Olympic's Peter Zorbas had a good chance to put his side back in front, but shot well wide of the near post from 12 metres.
Both coaches were happy with the draw, with Olympic's Branko Culina pleased with the character shown by his players.
Sterrey was happy after a fairly disrupted and short preparation leading into the first game of the season.