A week ago he seemed set for the sack and Newcastle United’s dressing room appeared on the point of mutiny but John Carver finally has something to celebrate after arresting a run of eight straight defeats. With Hull losing at home to Burnley, the point against West Bromwich Albion at St James’ Park eases Newcastle’s relegation fears while vindicating the board’s decision to keep Carver in the manager’s chair following Steve McClaren’s refusal to take over last Sunday.

“It was a huge point,” said Carver, who has spent much of the past week repairing relationships with players he had attempted to “shock back into life” by roundly criticising after defeat at Leicester last Saturday.

“It’s probably been the toughest week of my life. It was important to stop the slide, stop the run of defeats. The way we did it is pleasing. A lot was said, and rightly said, after Leicester and there was a response both from players and fans. It was like being back in a proper football stadium where all that mattered was football. The fans stayed with us and were patient.”

With Newcastle fans temporarily abandoning their continuing protests against Mike Ashley’s ownership of the club, their backing galvanised a team who had Ayoze Pérez’s equaliser to thank for a potentially priceless point.

“My players showed character against a team of giants,” said Carver. “There was one team trying to win the game and one team trying to steal it from a set piece. It was always going to be difficult for us to break West Brom down. They are not easy to play against and don’t concede many goals.

“This point might be huge for us but the performance is more important to me.,It showed that people cared. It was our biggest game since we were relegated at Aston Villa in 2009 but it ended with our destiny still in our own hands. There was a lot of determination out there. There’s a feeling of big relief but there’s still a lot of work to do. We can’t afford to rely on other people.”

He concluded with a dig at reporters he felt had misconstrued a “tongue in cheek” comment he made about “believing I’m the best coach in the Premier League”. “It’s been tough. An awful lot was said but some of the things I said were taken in the wrong context,” he said.

Carver has now vowed to keep his public utterances to a minimum and proved the point with a 34-word message in the match programme. “The time for talking is over,” it read. “Actions speak louder than words and we have to start delivering on the pitch. Get behind the team his afternoon and roar us on to three huge points.”