Keegan craves win to revive Magpies

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is convinced just one win will put his relegation-threatened side back on track.

The Magpies head for Birmingham tomorrow night in desperate need of a first win in 13 Premier League games with the chasing pack now breathing down their necks.

Victory is now a distant memory for Keegan’s players – they have not won a league game since December 15, and the 4-1 FA Cup third round replay defeat of Coca-Cola Championship Stoke on January 16 represents their only success in 15 outings in all competitions.

Keegan’s side will run out at St Andrews on the back of successive defeats by Aston Villa, Manchester United, Blackburn and Liverpool.

However, the 57-year-old is confident that he has seen enough during a traumatic two months back on Tyneside to suggest things could turn rapidly back in his favour.

Keegan said: “It is our job to pick them up all the time – and sometimes, it is their job to pick us up. It is a two-way thing.

“But spirits are still pretty high and a win would just elevate them and take them on to another level.

“That has always been the case in football. Players do not enjoy losing football matches.

“The players in the team feel under pressure and the players out of the team feel they should be in.

“It has never been any different.

“You can find yourselves playing the Arsenals and the Chelseas and the Manchester Uniteds and the Liverpools and the tough ones around you, and you can find yourselves easily in this division losing three or four games on the trot.

“It’s a bit harder to find yourselves winning them – that’s why the top teams are the top teams. They manage to do that.”

Newcastle’s recent run has been nothing if not debilitating with near misses mingling with comprehensive defeats to leave a black cloud hanging over St James’ Park.

Keegan was denied a winning start when Bolton spoiled his homecoming with a 0-0 draw on Tyneside on January 19, and away defeats at Arsenal in the FA Cup and then the league inside four days made Middlesbrough’s derby trip up the A19 all the more important.

However, Michael Owen’s disallowed goal and Robert Huth’s late equaliser meant they collected just a single point again, and four successive defeats since have simply magnified the problems the manager inherited.

But ever the optimist, Keegan believes even his side’s luck could improve markedly with a win.

He said: “Sometimes when you don’t get results, players feel the whole world has gone against them, but the opposite happens when you start to win games.

“You start to get a lot of confidence and then strangely enough, Lady Luck comes along and helps you out.

“You see that happening with teams, where they play well and win and then suddenly start to play very badly and sneak a win.

“That tends to happen with teams that have a bit of confidence. They hang in there a bit longer, the self-belief stays a little bit longer with the team and then they sometimes get a win where really, if they are honest, they would have been happy with a draw.

“That’s where we are. The confidence will come straight back once we win.”