Owen rescues precious point

England coach Fabio Capello watched Owen show his predatory instincts in front of goal as he levelled matters 10 minutes into the second half with his seventh goal of the campaign.

James McFadden had given Birmingham a deserved half-time lead but it was a different story after the break when the Magpies looked the more menacing.

Owen's strike earned Newcastle only their third point from the eight Premier League matches since Keegan returned to Tyneside and it was enough to keep them above Alex McLeish's side in the battle to stay in the top flight.

Newcastle were disjointed and barely posed a threat in the opening 45 minutes despite Keegan playing Owen, Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins together for the first time.

Birmingham were well worth their interval lead with McFadden a constant menace after being restored to the starting line-up and Fabrice Muamba impressing in the centre of midfield.

But the visitors were transformed after Keegan's half-time pep talk and they dominated proceedings and caused the home defence all kinds of problems.

It needed home goalkeeper Maik Taylor to make some crucial saves to deny Newcastle their first league win since mid-December.

McFadden broke the deadlock after 32 minutes when when left-back David Murphy lofted the ball into the Newcastle box and McFadden was able to turn Abdoulaye Faye before clipping the ball wide of Steve Harper into the corner of the net.

However, Owen earned a point when Taylor again did well to parry away a low drive from Martins but Owen was the first to react to the rebound and clipped it into the corner of the net.