City grabbed the early initiative after eight minutes when Stephen Garrett made the most of a failed clearance in the United defence to nip in and slide the ball below Alan Blayney from six yards.

But the visitors levelled on 21 minutes through Neil Teggart - his fourth goal of the season - who collected a Gary Haveron ball, sold Cullen Feeney a dummy and delivered an 18-yard drive past Paul Murphy.

And United might have led at the break had an Albert Watson header on 40 minutes not come back off an upright after he rose to meet a Stuart King corner.

Garrett really should have restored Newry's lead shortly after the hour mark but despite rounding Blayney he only managed to skew his final ball past the target.

It proved a costly miss fifteen minutes later when Haveron made it 2-1 to the visitors with a close range header from another King set piece.

However Clarke ensured a first point of the campaign for Gerry Flynn's side with a minute remaining when he controlled a Michael Collins flick to rifle the ball into the top corner of the net.