Kevin Keegan

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan has urged his players not to be too downhearted after a tough start to his reign.

The Magpies head for Aston Villa on Saturday still awaiting their first victory four matches after the 56-year-old's arrival.

While that is a source of disappointment to Keegan as much as his squad, he believes the opener against Bolton and last weekend's derby clash with Middlesbrough, which sandwiched two visits to Arsenal inside four days, represented a tough start.

With Manchester United's visit to St James' Park coming a week after the trip to Villa Park, the manager knows things will not get any easier in the short-term.

However, Keegan insists a healthy sense of realism should not be allowed to cloud the club's ambition.

Keegan said: "The reality is we know we have had a tough start.

"Boro was tough and so will Aston Villa be - and then we have got Manchester United. It is a tough league - but we have been here before.

"I am a realist and while we would have loved to have scored three or four goals in each game, reality tells me that wouldn't have happened.

"When you look at the nature of the teams we have played, you see that.

"Bolton were always going to make it difficult for us - but I thought we would win that game because the crowd were with us.

"But on the day, we just were not good enough.

"Then the two games against Arsenal, you knew it would be difficult to go there twice in four days and get anything, especially after they put their strongest side out in the cup."

Newcastle will arrive at Villa having won none of their last eight Barclays Premier League games, a run which has seen them take just three points from a possible 24 and slip to the fringes of the fight for survival.

Keegan freely admits that confidence is in short supply among his players.

However, he is adamant that the quality is there within a small squad to turn round a difficult season, and that is the message he will be drumming home as he prepares his side for their latest mission.

Keegan said: "We can provide more invention in the team.

"Lack of confidence is probably another factor where players are just scared to risk the ball.

"They see the pass they just don't want to give the ball away. They think, 'I don't want to give a bad pass'.

"You have got to risk the ball to score goals, and you have to take a chance.

"That is all because of where the players are at the moment. It is not because of anything we have said to them.

"It is because of where they are and what they are seeing on the football field having had a difficult few matches."

Keegan will be without the suspended Charles N'Zogbia after he collected his fifth booking of the season at Arsenal on January 29.

However, he could have his biggest squad yet from which to choose from following the return from injury of striker Mark Viduka and full-back Jose Enrique.

In addition, Habib Beye and Abdoulaye Faye are back from Senegal's African Nations Cup campaign, although Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins is understood to have arrived back with an ankle problem.