He said: “It hasn’t been a good season so far and the rest of it now has to be a steady build-up.
“But we’ve got a new lease of life now and everybody’s a million per cent behind the new gaffer.
“We’ve got a good squad of good players – now we’ve got to go out there and prove it.”
He added: “I’ve never seen a reaction to a new manager like the one I saw on Wednesday among the fans and it makes you realise what Kevin means to the Geordies.
“Kevin’s arrival has given the players, the fans and everyone connected to the club a massive lift.
“I was just a young lad at Leeds when Kevin was taking Newcastle to great things in the 90s but I remember that Newcastle were always everybody’s second team in those days because of the great football they played.
“Everybody wanted them to do well and everybody loved watching them.
“I’ll always be grateful to Kevin, too, because he brought me into a full England squad for the first time when he was in charge of the national side.
“I was in the Under-21 squad but Kevin pulled me out of that to take me with the senior side to France and although I sat on the bench in that game it was my first taste of the full England squad.”
