Newcastle United boss Joe Kinnear has backed the highly-criticised Michael Owen, saying the striker will hit form soon.

Owen failed to have a shot on goal in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough but Kinnear could see the hard work the out of favour England striker was doing.

"Yes, Michael had a quiet game by his high standards, but the coaching staff on the bench could see how hard he was working and we felt that he did a lot of unselfish running for the team.

"That was backed up when we had a look at the video after the game and studied each individual performance and saw what Owen had done.

"Our big regret at Middlesbrough on Saturday was that none of the chances we created came Michael's way, but that was not necessarily his fault.

"He kept running into goalscoring positions, but he just never got the ball, and that is something we have to work on."