Newcastle United 0 Bolton Wanderers 0

AT least we now know there are limits to his powers.

The messiah has returned, and yet Newcastle remain as stubbornly unwilling to play along as ever. Even the greatest of journeys must begin with the smallest of steps. But after a week in which the St James' Park faithful had been promised a great leap forward, steps don't come much smaller than this.

Yet for all that Saturday's insipid goalless draw with Bolton represented a crushing let-down amid the hype and hysteria that has accompanied Kevin Keegan's return to Tyneside, perhaps it is best that reality hits home at the start.

Newcastle are not going to turn into The Entertainers overnight, and Keegan is not going to have the big four quaking in their boots unless he is able to make significant improvements to the squad of players currently at his disposal.

If he had any doubts as to the scale of the task he has inherited, he won't be harbouring them now. But better that, surely, than a rose-tinted impression of a situation that has collapsed spectacularly since Newcastle trounced Bolton on the opening day of the season.

IF Kevin Keegan was in any doubt about the scale of the task he has inherited at Newcastle United, he won't be after watching this.

One thing has been forgotten amid all of the hype and hysteria that has accompanied Keegan's return to St James' Park - Newcastle are a decidedly average team.

And for all that the 56-year-old wants to talk about entertainment and attacking football, the players currently at his disposal will not turn into world-beaters overnight.

Endeavour and effort were abundant as the Magpies drew 0-0 with Bolton, but quality and creativity were not.

Newcastle failed to record a single shot on target and, save for a James Milner cross-shot that threatened to creep under the crossbar, Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen found himself with nothing to do all evening.

Shay Given was similarly under-employed at the other end, but defensive security is hardly something Keegan has been installed to provide.

He has been appointed as Sam Allardyce's successor in an attempt to provide the thrills and spills that were so sadly lacking under his predecessor.

On the evidence of his first game in charge, it is not going to be an easy task.

"I said to Terry (McDermott) at half-time, 'We've not even had five or ten minutes when we've penned them in'," revealed Keegan. "He said, 'It's been like that all season'. I think it took us 12 minutes just to get into their half."

Welcome to Newcastle United circa 2008. And welcome to the reality of the Premier League Keegan has re-entered, a land where opposition teams pack ten hulking athletes behind the ball and ask wannabe crowd-pleasers to thread the eye of a needle. A land where organisation and sterility are valued above creativity and verve. A land where Sam Allardyce was king.

Saturday's game pitted Allardyce's Bolton against Allardyce's Newcastle. Those who bemoan Mike Ashley's decision to dispense with his former manager's services at so early a stage of the season should bear that in mind. And those who were quick to deride Keegan's mission statement on Friday should also watch a tape of Saturday's game and consider whether entertainment is really such a bad aspiration after all.

The reaction to Keegan's opening address has generally gone one of two ways. Amid Newcastle fans, it has been interpreted as an extrapolation of Tyneside's footballing commandments. Thou shalt not lump the ball forward aimlessly. Thou shalt not set out thy stall to achieve a mind-numbing 1-0 win. Thou shalt always attack.

Away from the North-East, however, it has been derided as the populist ramblings of a manager and club that have bought into a romantic notion of fun for fun's sake. National commentators have played 'Let's all laugh at the Newcastle fan', a starry-eyed optimist blissfully unaware of the reality of life in the sanitised Premier League.

If they don't go to the theatre, then they can't be expected to understand the notion that success is measured by cups and trophies alone.

Well, 52,000 fans flocked to St James' Park to be entertained, and had it not been for the euphoric reaction to Keegan's pre-match entrance from the tunnel, 52,000 would have left wondering why they had bothered.

Yes, Newcastle's size and stature means some silverware should not be out of the question. But if you've spent the first half of the season watching Manchester United, a trophy is a reasonable demand. If you've spent the first half of the season watching Newcastle, a solitary shot on target, something that was not achieved on Saturday, is a reasonable place to start.

"I've read some of the things that have been said and they're ridiculous," said Keegan. "It's been unbelievable, almost to the point where I think the whole nation must be sick of hearing my name.

"You can laugh at some of it, but what I do know is that I can help put the smile back on people's faces.

"I've been here as a player and they can see that I care. I don't have to kiss the badge for them to know that, it's a trust that's been built up. That's something that you can't manufacture. They know I'll look after their club, I did it last time as a player and manager, and it's something I'll do again."

So, in the fullness of time, perhaps days like Saturday will become the exception to the norm.

Robbed of three central midfielders to suspension and four players to the African Nations Cup, the shortcomings of Newcastle's squad were ruthlessly exposed.

With centre-half David Rozehnal forced into midfield, a complete lack of creativity meant Michael Owen, promoted to skipper despite his much-publicised criticisms of his new boss, and Shola Ameobi, restored for his first start since September, were starved of the service Keegan himself relished as a player.

A James Milner cross-shot forced a back-pedalling Jussi Jaaskelainen to scramble the ball over his own crossbar, and Owen might have won a penalty when Matthew Taylor bundled him over midway through the second half. At the other end, Jlloyd Samuel would have scored a last-minute winner had Shay Given not saved the substitute's close-range effort with his legs. Apart from the sporadic serenading of Keegan, though, that was pretty much as good as it got.

"If I'm honest, I thought they needed someone to talk to them from the middle to the back," said the Newcastle boss.

That someone could arrive before the transfer window closes, as Keegan, who has been linked with a multi-million pound bid for Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick and cut-price deals for both Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell and Dundee United midfielder Barry Robson, remains hopeful of signing at least three new players within the next ten days.

"To bring in three players in the next two weeks would be fantastic," he added.

"But I don't want to park players here. Some great players have come here and struggled. I'd prefer to bring players who don't need much settling in."

Ashley has pledged to support Keegan in the transfer market, but Gary Megson has sounded a note of caution amid the clamour for the new Magpies manager to start planning for the future.

"He has to get through this season first," said the Bolton boss. "They only have 27 points, which is still not enough to stay up."

For the time being, at least, it looks like the dreaming is on hold.