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Kevin Keegan was left in no doubt about the size of the task of transforming Newcastle United into one of England's leading teams after an uninspiring 0-0 draw against Bolton Wanderers at St James' Park on Saturday.
Just four days into his second stint as Newcastle's manager, Keegan's
first match in charge was a gritty, uncompromising battle for survival. The two sides hardly created a clearcut scoring chance between them.
As the party atmosphere at St James' fell flat, reality dawned that Newcastle had dropped a place to 12th in the Premier League with 27 points from 23 matches and were still searching for their first league goal this year.
Bolton are 15th, one point above the relegation zone.
There was no hint of the cavalier attacking style that highlighted Keegan's five years as Newcastle manager in the 1990s, although his makeshift side did play a neater passing game than the unpopular long ball variety preferred by Sam Allardyce who was sacked on January 9.
With Alan Smith, Nicky Butt and Emre Belozoglu suspended, Mark Viduka injured and Habib Beye, Abdoulaye Faye and Obafemi Martins away at the African Nations Cup, Keegan did not have too many options and Newcastle were hugely disappointing for the opening hour.
Their first meaningful goal attempt came in the 51st minute when defender Stephen Carr fired over the bar. Their play for most of the first hour was scrappy and uninspired despite tireless running by captain Michael Owen.
Bolton, without the departed Nicolas Anelka as a focus of their attacks, were not much better and their only attempt at goal in the first half was when new signing from Portsmouth's Matthew Taylor blasted wide.
Instead they were content to keep eight or nine men behind the ball for long periods and manager Gary Megson, briefly a Newcastle player in the 1980s, managed to stifle the home team and the home crowd.
As the match wore on to its inevitable conclusion, the Bolton fans taunted Keegan with chants of "You'll be sacked in the morning," and "You should have kept Big Sam".
The paucity of play from both teams quickly killed off the delirious welcoming atmosphere that had built up for Keegan before kickoff with more than 50,000 ecstatic Newcastle fans raising the roof for their hero, returning after an 11-year absence.
Keegan, 56, walked out of the tunnel and took his place in the dugout as the Euro 96 anthem Football's Coming Home blared out across the ground.
A phalanx of photographers and TV camera crews followed him as he took his seat before the start of a match Newcastle desperately needed to win after a run of four straight league defeats culminating in last Saturday's 6-0 thrashing by current leaders and defending champions Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Manchester United hung on to top spot with late goals from Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo which sealed a 2-0 victory at Reading.
United failed to put any daylight between themselves and Arsenal, however, with Emmanuel Adebayor scoring twice as the Gunners trounced Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage.
Third-placed Chelsea also enjoyed an away victory, beating Birmingham City 1-0 thanks to a Claudio Pizarro header.
United and Arsenal each have 54 points from 22 games with Chelsea on 50. Fourth-placed Liverpool, who play at Aston Villa today, are one of four clubs, including Villa, on 39 points.
Bottom club Derby County lost 3-1 at Portsmouth while Sunderland were beaten 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur. Blackburn Rovers were held 1-1 at home by Middlesbrough.
- REUTERS
