Nicky Butt believes he can get Newcastle United teammate Joey Barton onto the straight-and-narrow.

"Joey's gone through a bad spell in his life and he knows that," Butt told the Sunday Sun.

"He's got back to what he does best now, which is play football, and hopefully he can put it all behind him now. And he's someone who lads can look at and see that everyone makes mistakes, and that when you get given a second or third chance, you've got to take it with both hands.

"Joey's done wrong . . . but he's done the crime, he's done the time and hopefully he can move on."

But if Barton needs still more direction on the path to redemption, Butt believes Joe Kinnear is the man to show him the way.

"He (Kinnear) has come in and given us a lot of discipline, which we didn't have when we didn't have a manager," said Butt, whose fledgling partnership with Barton is described by Newcastle's interim manager as the "heartbeat" of his team.

"When Kevin Keegan was here, it was all going great. We were playing well and had a man to look up to. Then when we had nobody, it was difficult.

"So Joe's come in and given us something to work to, someone to prove ourselves to, and I do think the boys need that; they need to prove themselves week-in, week- out in training.

"Now there's someone there, you get told if you're not performing. But if nobody's there to do that, people do get a bit blase, particularly if they're playing week-in, week-out."