Keegan needs repeat show of 'Howay 5-Oh!'

It is more than 11 years since Newcastle United hammered Manchester United 5-0 at St James' Park – a game immortalised in the video 'Howay 5-Oh!' – and Kevin Keegan recognised the questionable relevance of October 1996 yesterday while obliging requests for reminiscence. But when asked if Newcastle could ever get back to that level, Keegan replied: "Definitely, yes, not overnight, but definitely."

Keegan acknowledged that Newcastle's 6-0 humiliation at Old Trafford six weeks ago is the more pertinent result for the two teams meeting at St James' this evening. He said he would be showing his players recordings of neither game, but will stress to Newcastle that Manchester City won at Old Trafford when no one expected them to – "and deserved to".

"Man for man they are better than what we can put out," Keegan said, "but if we can perform as a team, Man City showed a couple of weeks ago that they are not invincible. They got in front of them, stood up to them and then had the courage to play. While they are an excellent side and they set the standards along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, they are not infallible."

Newcastle, without a league win since 15 December, are fallible, as was seen in the second half of the game at Old Trafford. Goalless at half-time, Newcastle imploded; a fortnight ago they led 1-0 at half-time at Aston Villa only to then concede four.

"We have to push that to one side," Keegan, who may bring in former Tottenham assistant Chris Hughton as a coach, said of Old Trafford. "We went there managerless, no disrespect to the caretaker. They were 0-0 at half-time and did have a couple of opportunities. After that they fell to bits and it could have been more than six, but Man United can do that to anybody.

"I would think we would get a reaction to that. We have got to let Man U know we think differently now and are capable of a different performance over 90 minutes, although if they looked at us playing Villa second half, they would think we were the same team. I am aware of the pluses and minuses. It would be easy for me to say we are a different team now."

Things were different over a decade ago. Then Sir Alex Ferguson's side effectively clinched the title with their 1-0 win at Newcastle in early March 1996, Eric Cantona scoring the goal. Newcastle's 5-0 victory eight months later was seen by some as payback.

"You do not beat Man United 5-0," Keegan said. "It was an amazing game in that respect. When you analyse the game, the season before when we lost, we played just as well. The difference was we scored some fantastic goals. David Ginola's was great.

"I don't think we got carried away. I did not even stay out at the end. I just stood at the top of the stairs watching the Man U players coming back in. The last one up was Cantona. He just shook my hand and said 'Effin' good team.' His English was perfect. You have got to enjoy days like that but you must not think in itself, it means anything, it is just one result and three points."

Only Nicky Butt remains from the two starting XIs that day, and he was then wearing red. Newcastle need some points soon if they are not going to be sucked into the relegation battle. But if Arsenal win at Birmingham at lunchtime, Ferguson's players will kick off eight points behind the Gunners. The pressure will be on.

But the champions have won at St James' in five of their last six visits and no wonder Ferguson said yesterday: "Newcastle is one of my favourite venues. I've always enjoyed going there, seeing the passion of their fans. I enjoy that. It is one of the main games of the season in the sense it's a football occasion against football-minded people."