Despite not scoring as many goals as last season, Martins continued to have a big influence on the team’s success.  Generally, when he played well and scored, the team tendered to achieve positive results.

His lose to the African Cup of Nations hit the team hard in a key position.  With Viduka and Owen struggling with injury at the time, the goals really dried up for the team.

At 23 he still has plenty to learn and improve on.  His first touch can let him down and his poor disruption at times raises some questions.  However, his ability to run at defenders with pace and his ability to score a goal out of nothing is a major asset to the team.

Providing the speculation is untrue, and he is not tempted to leave for Arsenal, or any other club, Obafemi Martins will have a big part to play in Kevin Keegan’s team next season.

At Christmas time it looked like another season of injuries and failure for the England international. However, the arrival of Kevin Keegan saw the revival of Michael Owen at St James' Park.

After over 3 months without a goal, Owen scored the first goal of the second Kevin Keegan era in a 4-1 FA Cup 3rd round replay win over Stoke City. Owen was then made captain by the manager.

Owen repaid that faith and went on his best run of form at the club, where he scored six goals in six games, in a period when we registered four wins and two draws.

A goal on the final day of the season saw Owen register his 11th Premiership goal and his 13th in total for the season.

One of the big talking point of the close season already is whether Owen will extend his contract, which expiries at the end of next season, the news so far appear positive, with talks allegedly already started and if Keegan gets his way the striker will be all signed come the start of next season.

A fit and goal scoring Michael Owen is an asset to any team, and this was proven in the final two or three months of the season. If he can continue that kind of form into next season, we might finally start to see Owen repaying some of the massive transfer fee we paid back in 2005.

An extremely poor first season for Alan Smith, where he did not manage a single goal and was unable to be affective in a variety of different roles on the pitch. His biggest contribution was his indiscipline, which cost him 10 yellow and 1 red cards.

In midfielder Smith appeared unable to cope with the holding role, and when asked to play out wide, he struggled to provide any real width meaning he tended to cut back inside far too often.  Up front Smith did look the most comfortable at times but his lack of height made him an ineffective target man, so with his zero goal return, his contribution was minimal.

He still did manage to play 37 games however, with both mangers showing faith in the former Leeds and Man United man.  They both also publicly stated at various times what a professional player he was, praising his commitment and attitude, and saying how important he was in the dressing room.

With numerous rumours of alleged interest from Middlesbrough and Rangers, the club may be tempted to cash in and sell him if they can recoup some of the £6m they look to have wasted so far.

It would appear to be the end of the road for Shola at Newcastle. The Fenham Eusébio dropped down the pecking order with the arrival of Mark Viduka and Alan Smith in the summer, and he never manager a real run in the team this season.

In March he was deemed surplus to requirements and was allowed to go on loan to Championship promotion chasers Stoke City.  Stoke eventually won promotion but with little help from Shola, who did not score in his six appearances for the Potters. Talk of a £4m transfer to Stoke has been mentioned but nothing has been confirmed by either club.

Regardless if Stoke do not want to buy him, Newcastle will no doubt be looking to move on their former youth player.

Mark Viduka will be responsibly satisfied with his first season at St James' Park. He made a major contribution in the 3 man attack adopted by Kevin Keegan, and he proved to a perfect foil for Owen and Martins.

Only scoring seven goals you could say was slightly disappointing, but his part in the team was more vital than just scoring goals. His ability to hold up the ball and his neat touch on the ball, give the team a dimension that was very important during some tough times.

Injuries robbed us of Viduka for key spells during the season, and this was no coincidence that this was when we struggled.

An achilles injury ruled him out of the last game of season, and with the recover time up to six months, a new striker, you would think, will be brought in during the summer.  So at 32 and into his last year of his current contract, next season could be his last in a black & white shirt.

It was a season of improvement and first team opportunities for the England U19 international.

Despite what he will look back upon, as a disappointing loan spell at Preston, where he only scored 1 goal and was sent off, Andy Carroll should be happy with the 18 games he has got at first team level.

With the potential sale of Shola Ameobi on the horizon, Andy Carroll will move up the pecking order for next season.