Newcastle United boss Kevin Keegan is upbeat over their chances ahead of the Premiership kickoff.

"It's my first summer back and it's very exciting," he said. "It's everything I expected it to be. This is a good set of players to work with and they've got a great work ethic. There's still a way to go before it kicks off and some things to learn, but there's a real sense of anticipation within the camp.

"There are always expectations. It's not just at Newcastle where there are expectations, but why shouldn't we have them? We have a lot of quality, international players, we have added one good youngster in Danny Guthrie and a very good international in Jonas Gutierrez. Hopefully, there will be one or two more. If we do that, we should be optimistic and the fans should be as well.

"People will look at the situation and make their own minds up, but our job is to try and fulfil all the promise we've got in the squad. We don't know what lies ahead for us in terms of injuries, suspensions and luck, but there's no reason why we can't have our dreams. We might do better than a lot of people think."