English Premiership/Newcastle United: Michael Owen is now thriving in pastures new after leaving the concrete jungle of Madrid and it delights manager Greame Souness, writes Michael Walker

Placed in front of a presentation board with the instruction: "Diary, Thursday, 1. Put ball in net" written on it, Michael Owen sat down to discuss his first eight weeks at Newcastle United yesterday. He used words such as "stable" and "realistic".

He will learn.

Owen demonstrated he has already because he was using those descriptions in the context of a club where stability is an unrealistic daily expectation. "It is amazing how things snowball when everything is going wrong and then when everything goes right," Owen said of the 24-hour frenzy that surrounds the club on Tyneside. "That is what happens at this club. If you get this club rolling in the right direction it will be amazing because of the passion of the fans. If you get this club on the crest of a wave it will be a fantastic place to be.

"We are on the small start of that wave at the minute and we need to keep going. We won't win every game in a season, but once we lose one game it is still crisis, pressure on the manager (Graeme Souness). Hopefully, all that will settle down and people will be realistic. If we can get on a run and win six or seven out of 10 games, we will be there."

By "there" Owen meant the top six. Having beaten Sunderland and West Brom in consecutive Premiership games, Newcastle sit 10th this morning before the arrival of second-bottom Birmingham City. Five points off Tottenham, another Geordie victory and Owen knows there is scope for fans' imaginations to galavant. He offered the reminder that Newcastle won one of their first five games.

"When I joined here everyone was talking about managers and we won a couple of games and everything was looking great. Then lose one and it is back on about the manager. I just thought if this goes on all season it will do our heads in. We need the club to be stable, happy and everyone pulling in the right direction. Stable is the key word."

Personal stability has arrived for Owen after a year at Real Madrid when he was never sure of his place in the team or of his surroundings in a city he saw as a concrete jungle. The rural charms of Northumberland provide a comforting contrast and Owen spoke of his family's swift settling-in period.

"We have got a house and I am matey with a lot of the lads," he said. "The little girl has settled in, but still has the odd tear. But I have been getting out and about with my kid after training and I know where all the parks are and the playgroups are. I have put roots down here."

Golf - Owen's handicap is eight, Alan Shearer's is six - aided Owen's unlikely £16 million move and "the bright lights of Ponteland" have helped his social assimilation into the squad.

"He was quiet when he first came, but he is now joining in with the banter," Souness said of Owen. "He is now giving people abuse, which is part and parcel of our way of life. They all abuse each other terribly. I don't abuse him - the staff call him Mr Owen."

After three successive victories, Souness has resisted the temptation to say "I told you so" after repeatedly promising things would turn.

"Not at all, not at all because this game is a very cruel game," he said. "When you think things are going well, that's the time to start worrying.

"The danger in football is you think you have turned the corner, you think you have cracked it, you think you are playing well and then you soon get kicked where it really hurts if you think like that.

"We have got to forget what has happened in the last two (Premiership) games - take confidence from it, but certainly be totally focused for the next game and the next game and the game after that."

Souness insists the doom and gloom never got to him, and that he never lost faith in his players or himself. "The pressure started when I signed the contract at this club and it will always be here. Nothing changes in this job. If you are the manager of a big club, there's always pressure, and there always will be."

Injuries have been a major factor in Newcastle's start to the season, and Souness has been dealt a major blow in the last two days by the news of the medical condition which is likely to sideline midfielder Kieron Dyer for several weeks at least.

Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer and Albert Luque all remain on the sidelines, but close to returns, but Owen, Emre and Nolberto Solano are all back in business, and the difference is already apparent.

"If you have got your reserve team on the pitch, you are not going to win games," Souness said. "How many times have you heard someone say: 'They are not the same team without Wayne Rooney' or 'They are not the same team without Ryan Giggs' or take Arsenal, 'They are not the same team without Henry'?

"We have been operating with five and six out of our team - just one of them would have made a big difference to us, but we have had five or six out at the same time.

"(Birmingham boss) Steve Bruce will have had exactly the same problems. He'll be tearing his hair out because he's missing five, six, seven of his starting, or his best, 11.

"That's why they are not doing well, no other reason. The good players that are sitting in the stands because they are injured cannot help him. There is no magic in football. Football is all about good football players; if they are injured, they cannot contribute and I just wish people would wake up to that fact. There's no mystery."