Allardyce: Owen needs more time

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The 63rd-minute introduction of the England striker failed to break the deadlock and stretched the home side's scoreless streak at St James' Park to a remarkable 560 minutes.

Allardyce said: "Michael is not really back yet. It could be five or six games before you see the sharp end of Michael Owen."

He added: "If (England manager) Steve (McClaren) gives him some part of the Germany match this week that will be a great help and obviously we hope there will be no injuries from that."

Allardyce was determined to put some positive spin on his first home match in charge despite his side's inability to break down a resolute Villa defence. Gabriel Agbonlahor and Nigel Reo-Coker were only prevented from winning three points for the visitors by a pair of superb saves from Steve Harper.

The Magpies' best chance fell to defender David Rozehnal and Allardyce admitted: "It was frustrating in the end that we failed to break down a very solid defence.

"All we needed was to pull something out of the bag to win the game 1-0 and we haven't quite managed that but it was very important to keep a clean sheet and that makes me very happy.

"We always kept ourselves positive and tried to win the game. We have still got a lot of good players to come back. We have got four points from our first two games but we still have a way to go."

Villa boss Martin O'Neill was pleased with his side's performance but admitted his disappointment not to leave with all three points after a bright display.

O'Neill said: "I thought we were the better side and it was a really good performance. The players were very strong and very determined and we should have won it."