Kevin Keegan has ordered his players not to look back on the wasteland of their season as they attempt to mount a late charge towards safety.

Keegan's Newcastle travel to fellow strugglers Birmingham on Monday evening gripped by the anxiety of a 12-game Barclays Premier League run which has brought just three points and edged them ever closer to the battle against relegation.

The Magpies have not won a league game since December 15, while Alex McLeish's men, who drew 1-1 at home to Reading that day, have collected 13 points during the same period to close the gap to just two.

Few commentators would have predicted this fixture would begin with the sides in such close proximity in the table when Habib Beye's late header condemned City to a 2-1 defeat at St James' Park on December 8.

However, a home win this time around would see the promoted side overhaul the supposedly more illustrious Magpies and leave them ever deeper in crisis.

Keegan is the man charged with the task of sparking the turnaround with just nine games of the season remaining, and he insists his players have to look forward and not back.

He said: "You have to get to a point when you say, 'Don't look back, let's look at nine games left'.

"There is Birmingham and Fulham, we have got Reading and Sunderland to come here, and we know we have got to go to Spurs and Portsmouth.

"We have got Chelsea to come here as well - they are the games to focus on.

"The ones that have gone, disappointing as they have been, are confined to history now.

"We can only affect what is coming."

Newcastle's plight has grown by the week since Keegan replaced Sam Allardyce at the helm, although a difficult fixture list has not helped.

Their failure to take maximum points from either Bolton or Middlesbrough at St James' has intensified the disappointment of heavy, if not unexpected, defeats by Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester United and Liverpool, and Blackburn's smash and grab raid on Tyneside a fortnight ago.

But the fact remains that defensive frailty - they have conceded 17 goals in their last six league games - and a relative drought at the other end have cost them dearly.

Keegan will hope to address both failings at St Andrews, although he admits a sizeable helping of good, old-fashioned luck would not go amiss.

He said: "The challenge is always there to shut up shop.

"At places like Liverpool, you can defend well and, as we saw, go down to a fluke goal. We needed that bit of luck, not them.

"We could have done with that break, but when you are not getting results, things like that go against you.

"I look back at the Middlesbrough game and Michael Owen's (disallowed) goal, and Barnsley knocked Chelsea out (of the FA Cup) with that exact same goal, almost.

"Michael's was probably half the challenge that was."

With just two draws and six defeats to his name to date, Keegan knows a win is long overdue, and he remains confident one result could signal a major change in fortune.

He said: "Definitely, I am convinced of that. I said that when I came here.

"If you get a win, you get a smile on the players' faces when they come in, and not this feeling of 'Oh, not again' and of them feeling sorry for themselves.

"Results make football clubs. You win a game and everything is okay.

"You build them up after losing, sometimes unluckily, but it is pretty tough on them."

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