The 61-year-old was last week confirmed as manager until the end of the season after bringing stability to the club on an interim capacity following Kevin Keegan's departure in September.

Owner Mike Ashley appears to have shelved plans to sell the club, for the moment at least, with a worldwide search for a buyer so far having come to little.

Kinnear, who had been out of the game for almost four years when he answered Ashley's emergency call, always knew the opportunity was one he could not afford to turn down, and having reminded the Barclays Premier League of his ability to organise and motivate, is setting his sights on an even longer stay.

Asked if he felt he had something to prove when he first arrived at St James' Park, he said: "Without a shadow of a doubt.

"It was a massive task. People said 'you are going in at the wrong time'.

"They were on the floor when I arrived here. They were second from bottom, they had lost quite a few games to teams they should have been capable of beating.

"They had been beaten at home by Hull and Blackburn, so there were six points dropped. We need to address that and get those back elsewhere.

"Since I have come back, I have enjoyed it. I have had a tough time, there's no question about that.

"I know I am not the most popular, I understand that, but you get on with life and it is up to me to prove I am the man that's right for the job.

"Come the end of the season, I might me celebrating, who knows?"

The Magpies were indeed in deep trouble the day Kinnear walked through the door having taken just four points from their first six league games - he watched the final one, a 2-1 defeat by Blackburn on Tyneside, from the stands - a run which had left them rooted inside the relegation zone.

A little more than two months and nine games on, Kinnear's side have tasted defeat only twice, painfully at the hands of derby rivals Sunderland and also at Fulham, although a return of two wins and five draws has left them sitting uneasily just above the drop zone.

That is a situation Newcastle will hope to address on Saturday when promoted Stoke come calling before trips to Portsmouth and Wigan and home games against Tottenham and Liverpool bring down the curtain on a tumultuous 2008.

However, with confidence, and perhaps more significantly, injured players returning, Kinnear is hopeful of putting together the sort of run he feels will catapult his side up an unusually congested table.

He said: "When we think we have got a good result, all the other scenarios have not worked in our favour.

"But good luck to those teams who are scrapping the same as we are.

"It will continue to go on until one team decides to win three on the spin and you see a big picture change."

Kinnear is likely to keep faith with the men who fought out a 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough last weekend for the clash with the Potters despite the return to fitness of defender Steven Taylor and striker Mark Viduka.

Taylor's aerial prowess makes him a strong candidate, but Fabricio Coloccini and Sebastien Bassong have proved immovable in goalless draws at both Chelsea and Boro in the last two games.

Viduka once again demonstrated his quality in a brief cameo as a substitute at the Riverside Stadium, but he is short of match fitness after a six-month lay-off and Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins are likely to be preferred.