Watching Brief: Reality leaves fans waiting for Owen's goal and GOAL!

It is not a prediction for the day Michael Owen will start to find the net for Newcastle United, just part of the launch campaign for the latest Hollywood film release.

Considerably more money than the £16m splashed out on Owen has been thrown at Goal! It's the story of a young illegal immigrant in America spotted by a Newcastle scout and turned into a Premiership star.

In his first season on Tyneside, teenage Mexican Santiago Munez endures a difficult start.

But he overcomes the hurdles in front of him before landing a first team place. He then scores the goal that books Champions League qualification for the Magpies on the final day.

Fairytale stuff.

But back to reality and to Newcastle's current plight. And their very own real-life boy wonder endured his own miserable start in the North-East on Saturday.

No debut goal and not even a hint he was going to do so. If he has to wait until the end of the month for his first in a black and white shirt then the club's situation will look more perilous - not to mention the manager's position.

Unlike many other strikers who were snapped up during the transfer window, the question of whether goals will be forthcoming from Owen is unlikely to be raised.

Everyone knows Owen will score, but more pressing for Newcastle is when - particularly in light of the paucity of creativity at home to Fulham on Saturday.

Granted Nolberto Solano's crossing was absent from the right wing and expensive Spaniard Albert Luque failed to last a half on the left, but beyond those excuses Newcastle's dreamland forward line were starved of any real goalscoring opportunities.

And Owen, used to feeding off the precise long ball from David Beckham at Real Madrid, was asked to jump high with the basketball player figure of Zat Knight. A mis-match if ever there was one.

At the Bernabeu the man so often charged with the responsibility of linking midfield with attack was Zinedine Zidane. In comical contrast against Fulham it was the hopeless Amdy Faye operating a similar role.

When Kieron Dyer, Solano and Emre return to the side chances will certainly come along more frequently and the goals will follow.

Over 600 minutes of football had past when Charles N'Zogbia finally grabbed Newcastle's first of the season - ending their tag as being the only team in the professional English game without a notch in the Goals For column.

But, while relieved just to have seen their team score, it is Messrs Owen and Shearer that the fanatical Geordies - some of whom paid £200 to see the new No. 10 make his home bow - want to see ripple the net.

Owen only had an hour's training on Friday with his latest crop of team-mates and it is five years since the pair played together on the international stage and it showed. Work needs to be done on that pairing before Sunday's reunion with Craig Bellamy at Blackburn.

Too often Owen was overlooked for the punt upfield and when Shearer did get the flick-ons his strike partner was yards apart and never likely to latch on to the loose ball.

And it was Owen's frustrations at a lack of service that forced him into taking matters into his own hands and he earned the free-kick that led to Newcastle's equaliser.

He had already made a couple of weaving runs that rattled the Fulham defence and it was another, after initially rounding two men, that led to him being tripped wide on the right and N'Zogbia did the rest.

That was the only real excitement the fans got from their latest hero on another day to forget.

But, as Shearer put it in his programme notes, Newcastle have bought goals in purchasing Owen and now it is down to him to prove it.

Otherwise supporters could be heading for the cinemas to imagine what life could be like at St James' instead of the doom and gloom that currently surrounds the stadium.

Owen to score at home to Chelsea on May 7 to clinch a Champions League place? Not even the Disney Corporation would dare to come up with that one.