GLENN Roeder last night claimed that finding Giuseppe Rossi was like finding "gold dust", but warned Newcastle fans not to saddle the club's on-loan striker with unrealistically high expectations.

Rossi made the first start of his loan spell from Manchester United on Wednesday night and weighed in with the opening goal of the evening as the Magpies cruised into the fourth round of the Carling Cup.

As a consequence, the 19-year-old is already being hailed as the solution to a striker shortage that has seen Newcastle score just two goals in their last five Premiership matches.

Roeder admits Rossi's quality makes him keen to keep the teenager in his starting line-up when basement boys Charlton visit St James' Park tonight.

But while the youngster boasts a maturity that belies his tender years, Roeder is keen to prevent expectations running out of control at such an early stage in his career.

"With what he has shown at our training ground, and with what he did on his full debut here, Giuseppe has shown he will score lots of goals no matter where he is," said Roeder, who admitted he saw little chance of the Italian being allowed to leave Old Trafford on a permanent basis when his current loan deal expires in January.

"He was a goalscorer at Manchester United as well, albeit in the reserves, and finding a player like that is very difficult. They are like gold dust.

"He's only 19 and, in a few years' time, he'll be even better than his debut performance against Portsmouth.

"It was very refreshing to have him in the side and to watch him play as well as he did, although I don't think there were any of us who thought he wouldn't play well.

"Let's enjoy him while he's here though. Let's not put ridiculous amounts of pressure on him and let's not hype what he did against Portsmouth out of all recognition."

Roeder is no stranger to nurturing talented youngsters after his two years in charge of West Ham coincided with the emergence of the likes of Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard.

Rossi's explosive pace and keen eye for goal mean he has already been compared with Defoe, a striker who scored in 11 successive league games when he left Upton Park for a loan spell at Bournemouth in season 2000-01.

Roeder is keen to avoid a direct comparison between the two but, just as Defoe's development was handled sensitively in east London, so the Magpies manager refuses to rush Rossi in an attempt to achieve too much, too soon.

"I was keen to avoid pushing Jermain Defoe too early and often protected him because of that," he explained. "Jermain was someone that was coming on every game, playing for 15 or 20 minutes, and suddenly people were saying he should be playing for the senior England team.

"In this country we are diabolical for not protecting our young players. We see someone have a good game, and suddenly he's the best player in the country.

"Just let him (Rossi) grow into playing for us and let things tick along naturally. He's a young player - if he wasn't and it was an experienced player that we'd bought, then the expectancy would be fair enough. But don't put a crossbar above his head that he'll find hard to reach."

This evening, Rossi will come up against another young striker that could have found himself at Newcastle this season.

Earlier this summer, Roeder identified Charlton striker Darren Bent as a possible replacement for the recently-retired Alan Shearer, only for the England international to sign a new long-term deal at The Valley.

While Charlton have struggled ever since - Iain Dowie's side boast just four Premiership points this season - Bent's six goals in ten games have justified Roeder's faith in his ability.

"He's a highly talented young player," said the Newcastle boss. "Managers and coaches have looked at Darren since he made his debut for Ipswich a few years back and every season they saw a player that improved.

"I wouldn't have been the only one that saw that. He scored 18 last season and that was yet another season when he'd improved from the previous one. I think he's very much a talent of the future."

Shay Given, on the other hand, is a star of the present, and the Republic of Ireland international is expected to return to full training at the start of next week.

A first-team return remains a fortnight away but after perforating his bowel in September's 2-0 win at West Ham, the rate of Given's recovery remains impressive.

"He's well on the way to being better," said Roeder. "He's already done a bit of physical work, he's working with the ball again and the intensity of his training is increasing all the time.

"It will be six weeks this weekend since he last played and it's amazing how quickly that's gone by. I think we're looking at another couple of weeks because I don't think he's been in the situation where he's had to dive at players' feet yet.

"Having said that though, I have no doubt about Shay's bravery. What happened to him at West Ham won't even cross his mind once he's back."