Obafemi Martins says all the Newcastle players want to remain at St James' Park because they enjoy Kevin Keegan's brand of football so much.The 23-year-old Nigeria international scored his ninth goal of the campaign in Saturday's Premier League victory over Reading as the Magpies virtually assured their place in the top flight.

Significantly, Martins was joined on the scoresheet by fellow strikers Michael Owen and Mark Viduka with Keegan's bold policy of fielding three frontmen paying off handsomely once again.

Former Inter Milan marksman Martins scored 17 goals during his first season in England after making a £10million move to St James' Park during the summer of 2006.

He has repeatedly been linked with a move away from Tyneside since it emerged he had a £13million get-out clause inserted into his contract, but having survived his marginalisation by former boss Sam Allardyce he is now relishing the chance to prove himself all over again under the more enterprising Keegan.

Martins said: "Not only me, all the players want to stay next season. But we are not going to talk about next season now.

"We have five games left and we have to continue to play and win. It is possible to win all five games, so we will see what happens.

"We showed the fans how we can do it and we are very happy because if we continue to play like this, we will be at the top, never mind the bottom.

"We just need to continue to play well in the last five games."

Rampant optimism and desperate fatalism often go hand in hand on Tyneside, and there is little doubt three successive victories and a four-game unbeaten run have not solved all the problems Keegan inherited.

However, the joyless football of the Allardyce era is a distant memory, and like Sir Bobby Robson before him, Keegan has managed to harness the firepower at his disposal and use it to good effect.

Martins set the ball rolling with 18 minutes gone when he controlled the ball past the slipping Liam Rosenior and rounded Andre Bikey before slotting past Marcus Hahnemann.

Until that point, Reading had perhaps enjoyed the better of the game, and they responded well to the setback to dominate once again after it.

However, Owen's trademark 43rd-minute finish - his 10th of the season - from Habib Beye's intelligent pass put Newcastle firmly in the driving seat, and when Viduka finished off the most fluent move of the game 13 minutes after the restart, the points were secure.

The Magpies' frontmen, remarkably all signed by different managers inside the last three years, took their collective tally in the last four games to eight goals to fully justify Keegan's faith in them.

Martins said: "We are playing together very, very well. We have been training hard to play together, so we are happy.

"We are pleased to score beautiful goals - and if we continue to play like that, we will score more goals."

Keegan spent the first nine games of his second spell in charge clutching at straws, but the smile has returned to his face, and to those of his players.

The Magpies even survived a late blow when defender Steven Taylor, who has played a key role in the club's revival, was laid low by a virus, opening the door for 20-year-old reserve team captain David Edgar.

Keegan said: "I had no problems putting David Edgar in. He had a little bit of an iffy start, to be fair, trying to win a couple of balls that Franz Beckenbauer in his prime wouldn't have tried to win.

"But that's just keenness. After that, the longer the game went on, the more assured he looked."

The win consolidated Newcastle in 12th place and opened up a 12-point gap to the bottom

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