Newcastle old boy Titus Bramble returned to Tyneside with a vengeance to deny his former club a much-needed victory in a 2-all draw with 10-man Wigan.
The defender, derided during his time at St James' Park, headed home an 89th-minute equaliser just when it looked as though substitute Michael Owen - who had earlier been guilty of a glaring miss - and Obafemi Martins had snatched a win from the jaws of defeat.
Trailing to Ryan Taylor's third-minute strike despite Emmerson Boyce's 54th-minute dismissal, the Magpies belatedly launched a fightback - which saw the two strikers score inside seven minutes at the end of the game.
But with seconds of normal time remaining, Bramble headed a Daniel de Ridder corner past Damien Duff on the line to snatch a point.
Newcastle was awful for much of the match, and it was not until Wigan had been reduced to 10 men that it started to make its presence felt as an attacking force.
Having slipped back into the bottom three after last weekend's 2-1 defeat at Fulham, the home side ran out knowing nothing other than a third successive home win would do.
But it was simply desperate in an opening 45 minutes which served once again to underline the paucity of quality in a squad which has been systematically weakened under the managers who have succeeded Sir Bobby Robson over the last four years or so.
Wigan arrived with both first-choice strikers - Emile Heskey and Amr Zaki - sidelined by hamstring injuries, and with Mario Melchiot having joined them on the casualty list.
But within three minutes of the kick-off, Wigan was in front when Taylor's dipping 22-yard volley sped past an astonished Shay Given into the top corner.
But if the opening goal represented a setback, more worrying was the home side's failure to respond in anything like the fashion manager Joe Kinnear would have expected.
The deserved 2-0 victory over Aston Villa in its last outing at St James' Park was a distant memory, as roughly the same team was out-played and out-muscled in the middle of the pitch - and until the final few minutes of the half, it allowed once error-prone former Magpie Bramble the most untroubled of returns.
Given had to make regulation, by his standards, saves from Taylor and Wilson Palacios as Nicky Butt, Joey Barton - before he limped off injured - and Danny Guthrie thereafter were given the run-around.
It was perhaps telling that the most frequent ball-carriers for Newcastle as it attempted to fight back were fullbacks Habib Beye and Jose Enrique - with the Spaniard in particular wasteful in possession.
However, it should have been back on level terms in injury time when - after exchanging passes with strike-partner Shola Ameobi - Enrique surged into the box only to see his shot block by goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.
There was little doubting the tone of Kinnear's half-time comments - although whatever he said appeared to have little effect as the game resumed.
That changed six minutes later when Boyce, who had earlier been booked for a foul on Jonas Gutierrez, felled Ameobi and was dismissed - despite his claims he had got the ball.
Butt, Fabricio Coloccini and Martins failed to hit the target with headers as the home side piled on the pressure - and Jonas was unable to collect Butt's through-ball after running in