Keegan Defends Owen!

Last updated : 02 February 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor

Keegan: "Yes, Michael needs a goal - all strikers need goals - but we need to start supplying him with chances.

"If you are a forward, you need three or four chances every game, and then you will take the knocks if people start saying you are not scoring goals.

"In reality, in the three games for which I have been in charge, I can honestly say we haven't provided him with any good opportunities.

"He's had a quarter-chance, maybe one half-chance at Arsenal. In three games, that's not enough and we are trying to address it - that's what we have been about this week.

"Give those guys opportunities - look at Michael Owen's goal record for England. He doesn't have to prove anything to anybody.

"Newcastle fans know if we provide him with chances, he will score goals because that what he is about. That's what he has always done and that's what he will continue to do until the day he hangs his boots up."

"You have got to be honest and say Sunday is a big game. It's whether you are going to get sucked into it or not, that's the challenge.

"Shay (Given) is right in his assessment - it's spot-on. There are two ways you can look at it: we put a run together and start looking up, or we start looking down, and we don't want that."