Substitute Marlon Harewood's first Newcastle goal rescued a point in a 1-1 draw for the Coca-Cola Championship leaders after QPR threatened to dent their promotion charge.

The on-loan Aston Villa strike poked home Andy Carroll's 70th-minute header to cancel out Ben Watson's early opener and increase the Magpies' lead at the top of the table to three points.

However, the visitors will consider themselves unfortunate not to have left Tyneside with all three points on a night when the pace of winger Wayne Routledge and the movement of midfielder Ben Watson were simply too much for their hosts.

Danny Guthrie had a first-half penalty saved by Radek Cerny and Carroll and Kevin Nolan both went close with headers, but QPR also had their chances in front of a crowd of 38,923.

QPR took the lead with just seven minutes gone when Jose Enrique's poor clearance fell to Watson, who made ground to the edge of the box and fired home with the help of a deflection off Steven Taylor.

Newcastle should have been back on level terms with 19 minutes gone when defender Damion Stewart was penalised for handball in the box as he blocked Taylor's shot. However, Guthrie's spot-kick was not well hit or placed and Cerny guessed correctly and saved comfortably as he dived to his right.

Carroll drove a 66th-minute free-kick straight at the keeper as the Magpies pressed once again, and he played a major role in the equaliser four minutes later, heading down Simpson's cross for Harewood to stab home at the far post.

The striker turned a 79th-minute Gutierrez cross across the face of goal, but Newcastle had to make do with a point on a frustrating night.