Newcastle Utd 2 Fulham 0ONLY TIME will tell if Newcastle United's crisis has been averted or merely postponed but at least Kevin Keegan provided those who dismiss him as a tactical illiterate with food for thought.
The first win of Keegan's second managerial coming on Tyneside was distinguished by his perceptive deployment of Michael Owen in an unfamiliar, deep-lying, role featuring the England goal poacher as a link player joining up midfield and attack.
Indeed connectivity proved an emerging theme, with Keegan subsequently imploring his board to discuss with Owen an extension of his contract, which is due to expire in June 2009.
"I've already started saying we should be talking to Michael now," said Keegan who celebrated Owen's late goal - a glancing header following Geremi's free-kick - by spraying the contents of an isotonic drink container into the air, champagne style.
"It's an urgent issue; whatever the finances are, I don't think we'll go out and get a player that's any better than Michael Owen. As long as he doesn't get injured again, Newcastle fans will see someone who'll grow into one of the greats here.
"I don't see why we should be looking all over the world for foreign players and trying to teach them how to play in the Premier League when we've got one who knows his way around and whose goalscoring record is tremendous."
If that seemed a possible dig at Newcastle's new continental recruitment network it should be added that Keegan enjoyed a "constructive" chat with his scouting supremo, Dennis Wise, the club's executive director, on Saturday evening.
While they possibly mused on the meekness of a surely doomed Fulham's surrender - bar the valiantly impressive Jimmy Bullard, Roy Hodgson's players looked resigned to relegation - it is safe to assume Owen's future was on the agenda.
"I'll do everything I can to keep him but I haven't discussed it with Michael yet," admitted Keegan, whose side are now six points clear of the drop zone.
How ironic that as England coach and star striker, Keegan and Owen did not entirely empathise. "I didn't realise how good he was," reflected Newcastle's ever candid manager who never envisaged Owen evolving into a quasi Peter Beardsley, lurking behind Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins until he watched him on a Tyneside practice pitch.
"In training Michael naturally comes deep, we kept seeing it and seeing it and thought, 'Wow, this guy can link us up all day long'," he explained. "We've positioned Michael a bit deeper because he's the one player here who we know can keep possession, see a pass and know when to release the ball.
"He might get more chances coming from there than standing up against a big man looking for space. He could play as a midfielder until he's 37."
At 32, Viduka is increasingly injury prone but proved pivotal at centre forward, calming Geordie nerves with an early goal. Significantly Owen served as a decoy, luring Aaron Hughes out of position while Viduka met Geremi's pass and tricked Brede Hangeland - otherwise Hodgson's best defender - by feinting to shoot right-footed before striking the ball low, and left-footed, to the net.
Conceding that Newcastle remain in, peril, albeit diminishing,Viduka cites internal politics as a partial cause. "Things haven't been ideal, there were always whispers about the previous manager [ Sam Allardyce] being changed," he said. "That shouldn't affect performances but sometimes it does."
Keegan has struggled to erase Allardyce's negative imprint but his reinvention of Owen might just silence those who suspected he was an anachronism.
Tougher tests lie ahead and safety is still not assured but, right now, Newcastle's manager deserves the benefit of the doubt.
