More than most Newcastle United players, Steven Taylor deals in black and white. When he speaks, he states, using clipped, short sentences. When he plays, he puts himself about. As a boyhood supporter of the team, he is always the last to leave the pitch at St James’ Park, saluting his own. He talks a lot about pride, passion, his Geordie credentials.

To use his parlance, Taylor is “living the dream”, although at present it feels more like enduring the nightmare. Of Kevin Keegan’s likely starting XI against Birmingham City this evening, only Taylor and Steve Harper, the goalkeeper, have regional ties to Newcastle and there is urgency in the way both men describe the club’s predicament, perhaps because they feel it to their core, perhaps because they understand the madness, the fantasy.

At St Andrew’s, Newcastle play the first of two mammoth matches in succession. They have not won a league game since a 1-0 victory over Fulham on December 15 and not at all under Keegan in his eight games in charge in all competitions; Fulham visit Tyneside this weekend. If the grim, galling prospect of relegation is to be banished, points must be gathered quickly, arresting the freefall.

For Harper, the match against Birmingham ranks as “the biggest in the club’s recent history, the biggest for a long, long time” and “equally important” to the period 12 years ago, when Keegan’s Newcastle came close to winning the title. “There’s always pressure at this place,” Harper said. “Everybody knows it’s a pressure cooker – more than any other club – but Monday is massive.”

There are occasions when it can be difficult to encapsulate Newcastle’s peculiar circumstances, the attention, the drama, the yearning for success, how a club who have underperformed so consistently still attract such committed crowds and provoke such manic interest. But Keegan’s return has sharpened the focus and, because of poor results, intensified the pain.

“I can only speak for myself, but it means so much,” Taylor, the centre half, said. “When you come off the pitch and you’ve been beaten, it kills your weekend. You know the fans are going home unhappy. It’s a kick in the teeth. You look around the dressing-room and the lads have their heads in their hands. It feels mad because there have been times when we’ve deserved more.

“We know who pay our wages. We feel for the fans. People eat, drink and dream football in Newcastle. It’s a football city, where people work all week just to get the money together to watch us on a weekend, and when we don’t get results, it hurts. We can’t dwell on it. We have to put it behind us, look forward to the next game. But no one should think it doesn’t hurt.”

Taylor’s form has not been pristine, but at 22, the captain of the England Under21 team has time and ability on his side. “When I go away during international breaks, other players keep asking me about Newcastle and what’s going on,” Taylor said. “They don’t understand, don’t get it. If they came here and experienced it for themselves, they soon would.

“Until you actually play for the club, get a taste of running out in front of 52,000 fans, being around the place, no one can understand it. The whole city is a football city. You go to restaurants, shopping or whatever; no matter what you do, you get people coming up to you, talking football, asking football. It’s football crazy. Everybody knows what the potential is. Every season we talk about it.”

Having made his debut for Newcastle four years ago, Taylor is working under his fifth manager. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he said. “It started with Sir Bobby Robson, then Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder, Sam Allardyce and now Mr Keegan. I learnt a lot from all of them. But this is the manager who’s going to take Newcastle on and win something.”

Because of Keegan’s prominence in the club’s history and soul, the desire for him to succeed is acute. Taylor, who watched Keegan’s team from the Leazes End as a youngster, shares it. “Back then, I remember thinking, ‘One day, maybe I’ll get to meet him,’ ” he said. “So it’s a dream come true to be working with him, training, listening to him talk.

“He’s just got that aura about him. He’s just a massive icon, simple as that. He cheers everyone up. He cracks jokes, mingles with everybody. He brings that bit of confidence.

Results haven’t helped, but if you’ve had a bad day or are feeling low, he puts an arm around you. He gets you up for it. He has that special something when he walks in the room. He’s got so much respect from everybody.

“There could have been no better appointment. I think Alan Shearer was probably the only one who could compete. The fans are still singing Keegan’s name and I think it was what they wanted. We’re in a bad position at the moment. But we’re confident we can get out of that and the players are 100 per cent behind Mr Keegan. One win and you’ll see a massive change.”

Taylor can see beyond the misery. “The thing everyone keeps going on about is time,” he said. “The gaffer has said that as well. It might take a couple of years to get things sorted, but it will be worth it in the end. You’ve got to be patient. We’re going through that struggle now, but once we come through it we’ll take off. Next season we will kick on.”

Steven Taylor has teamed up with Owen Hargreaves, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Theo Walcott to be a regional ambassador for a new community football award scheme launched by Nike and the Football Foundation. This offers an award for small community-based sports projects, led by outstanding young people in each region, with an emphasis on rewarding volunteers. For more information, go to www.footballfoundation.org.uk