With Michael Owen scoring, Newcastle United winning and Mike Ashley, the club’s billionaire benefactor, leading a hoarse rendition of “There’s only one Kevin Keegan”, it was possible to dream again at St James’ Park. Possible, but premature. The smiles being sported at the final whistle spoke of relief, not jubilation; of disaster averted, not victory hailed. Wounds are too raw for grandstanding.

It has been close, far too close. Having grasped four points from pivotal matches against Birmingham City and Fulham, Newcastle have soothed the immediate threat of relegation – with seven games to play, they are six points clear of the bottom three – but a deserved first win under Keegan’s management could not shield the brittle failings of a desperate season.

For those blessed or cursed with Newcastle affiliations, much emotion has been invested in Keegan’s return to Tyneside; given his place in the Geordie firmament, if his appointment fails, so does romance. There is a will for the manager to succeed and with Ashley’s resources, notwithstanding a recent £129 million City gambling loss, there is promise, too – but the work may be gruelling.

“I just can’t wait to get to the summer and then sit down and talk with Kevin about what we need to take the club forward,” Ashley said yesterday. But those discussions are likely to be intense. Newcastle’s decline may have become dramatic in recent months - until Saturday, they had not won a league game since December 15 – but it has been entrenched for years.

Some supporters have argued that only relegation could shake off complacency – and alarming parallels have been felt within the dressing-room. “When I signed from Middlesbrough [last summer], a few players came in and people expected things, but it’s been very frustrating,” Mark Viduka, the striker, said. “There were always whispers about the manager [Sam Allardyce] being changed.”

Viduka conceded that the club’s febrile existence had exerted a telling influence. “It shouldn’t affect performances, but sometimes it does,” the Australia forward said. “I was involved in what happened at Leeds United. It was a situation where nobody knew what was going on, so it did affect things.”

No longer indebted, thanks to Ashley’s largesse, relegation would not bring the same menace as it did to Elland Road, but, in terms of an established club’s humiliation, Viduka has contemplated the prospect of Newcastle emulating Leeds. “Yes, you’ve got to think like that because the situation we are in isn’t the best,” he said.

Against Birmingham and Fulham, there was a welcome renewal of commitment – Owen led an impromptu huddle before kick-off – with the England striker, Viduka and Obafemi Martins forming a potent attacking triumvirate, but Newcastle remain a team riddled with frailties. Their defending can be awful, a dearth of pace is an issue and a three-man midfield begs to be overwhelmed.

Where Newcastle have a get-out clause is in their forward line; Viduka opened the scoring with an adroit turn and precision shot after only six minutes and Owen headed a second close to the end.

With the latter routinely coming deep to receive possession and dictate play, Keegan has forged a new creative position for his captain, one at which he appears adept.

“We’ve played him there because he’s the one player at the club who we know can keep the ball, see a pass and know when to release the ball,” Keegan said. “He might get more chances coming from there. He’s enjoying the role. With the players we’ve got at the moment, it’s the best role for the club and I don’t see any reason to change too much when something’s working.

“In training, he naturally comes deep and we kept seeing it and thought, ‘Wow, this guy can link us up all day long’. I said to him after the Birmingham game, ‘You can play until you’re 36 or 37, if you want, as a midfield player’. Just give him the ball because he’s not going to give it away. Those players are priceless. I can find plenty who can give the ball away.”

Several of them wore Fulham shirts. Aside from Jimmy Bullard, Roy Hodgson’s side lacked dynamism and the manager admitted that the nature of their defeat had “cast a major depression over us”. Second bottom in the table, Fulham trail Bolton Wanderers, by three points and need to take advantage of a three-game sequence against Derby County, Sunderland and Reading. Dreams are on hold.

How they rated

Newcastle United (4-3-3): S Harper 6 H Beye 6 S Taylor 5 A Faye 6 J Enrique 6 Gérémi 5 N Butt 6 J Barton 7 O Martins 6 M Viduka 7 M Owen 8 Substitutes C N’Zogbia (for Martins, 74min), A Smith (for Viduka, 84), D Edgar (for Beye, 87) Not used F Forster, A Carroll Next: Tottenham (a)

Fulham (4-4-2): K Keller 7 P Stalteri 5 A Hughes 6 B Hangeland 5 P Konchesky 5 L Andreasen 5 J Bullard 7 D Murphy 5 S Davies 5 E Johnson 5 B McBride 5 Substitutes C Dempsey 5 (for McBride, 66min), M Volz Y (for Murphy, 71), D Healy (for Stalteri, 84) Not used T Warner, C Bocanegra Next: Derby (a)