MICHAEL OWEN had pictured the scene. After pulling on the Newcastle United shirt for the first time he had imagined scoring the winning goal on his first appearance at St James' Park - but even he was left disappointed.

The £16m club record buy was starved of efforts against Fulham and was left to consider what might have been.

But Owen, the England striker who was still reeling from last week's international defeat to Northern Ireland, insists he has no concerns about his lack of goalscoring opportunities at his new club.

And the 25-year-old is convinced his first goal for Newcastle has simply been delayed - suggesting the whole team has enough quality to turn possession into goals.

"You dream of a dream start and scoring on a debut and winning," said Owen, who had been hoping to repay the supporters who worshipped his arrival with at least one of his trademark strikes.

"But you have to be realistic and sometimes that doesn't happen; Saturday was one of those days.

"There will be plenty of occassions at this club when there will be plenty of goals and the points will come along the way.

"I only trained for just over an hour on Friday, so it's only natural that time is needed for me to settle in. I went straight from Ireland to Newcastle and all I had was a bag of clothes and not much else.

"It's been an interesting week and not the greatest of weeks. Losing with England and drawing here but things will get better, I'm sure of that.

"I wanted to show the best of me but it wasn't to be for a few reasons. It won't take much time to get used to the lads and when we get a few of the players back from injury things will improve. I have no doubt about that."

Owen's first appearance alongside Alan Shearer in the Newcastle starting line-up failed to deliver what everyone had been predicting - goals.

In fact the former Liverpool and Real Madrid man never tested Fulham keeper Tony Warner, an old Anfield team-mate.

Owen had an opportunity in the first half when a cross caught him off guard and late in the game he was unmarked at the back post but Shearer got his head to the ball first as the chance went begging.

But Owen, despite his relatively young age, has been in the game for long enough to know that things don't always go to plan.

And he has reassured Newcastle's fanatical support he can deal with the weight of having to score the club's goals this season.

"It doesn't really affect me. I have been used to pressure throughout my life and I prefer playing when people expect things from me," said Owen.

"I expect things from myself and I don't think about all the permutations. I try to think about what's best for the team. You have to have that mentality if you are a football player.

"But strikers always rely on the rest of the team. Saturday wasn't to be for the whole team. If the team doesn't play well the strikers suffer, but I'm sure we will score our fair share and I'll get my fair share in the future.

"Playing football you expect no chances some days. Other days you get ten chances and don't score any but that's football.

"It's about ups and downs and those can change in the space of a day. It wasn't the worst result but we weren't at our best either."

Regardless of whether Owen does eventually hit 20 goals for the Magpies this season, manager Graeme Souness knows defence has to be his primary concern.

Having drafted in Albert Luque, Nolberto Solano and Owen, goals should not be something Newcastle are short of in the coming months.

And after witnessing another calamity day on Tyneside - when Steven Taylor's lazy back pass led to Brian McBride's opener - Owen admits Souness will have to work on tightening his backline.

"It's very exciting viewing up here to see goals going in and defence is an area the manager has tried to address.

"The manager has brought in players and it's an area the manager sees as important to get right so I'm sure he will," said Owen.

"It was a strange goal from where I was standing. We had a bad back pass and a slip.

"It was not a great start but if you can get back anywhere it's here in front of a crowd like this.

"We are lacking confidence. We only had one point from four games prior to Saturday so I didn't expect people to be flying with confidence. But it will come."

Luque, stretchered down the tunnel in the first half on Saturday, is facing up to six weeks out with a torn hamstring