Ex-Newcastle United star Steve Watson explains how Steve Black saved his career

Steve Watson says that motivational guru Steve Black saved his Newcastle United career and helped him become one of Kevin Keegan's Entertainers.

The Geordie lad, the youngest ever to play for Newcastle at senior level, burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old but then found it tough to get in Keegan's line-up in the 1992/93 season.

However, after working with fitness mentor Black on Tynemouth beach on a daily basis he fought his way back into the reckoning and helped Newcastle finish third in 1994.

Black sadly passed away last week but the tributes have been flooding in on Chronicle Live's social feeds.

And Watson told Chronicle Live: "Everybody has their own story on Blackie on how much he affected their lives or how many he helped people's career.

"For me personally I would say Blackie turned my career around. I spent the first couple of years at Newcastle at 16 or 17 really just playing off the cuff. I had no real knowledge of professionalism or what it actually took to be a footballer.

"I think it was the promotion season in 92/93 where I didn't play many games at all and Kevin had put me back in with the juniors to get games or maybe to give me a kick up the backside. Then in the summer of 1993 I went away with the team at the end of the season and didn't feel like I was going anywhere.

"To be honest if I'd come back in poor nick I don't think I'd have had a career. But I made the conscious decision that summer to work with Blackie. Lee Clark used to work with him anyway but his dedication was different to any of the other young lads.

"I threw myself in with Blackie and trained every day with him. I didn't go away again that summer - just trained every day with him on the beach. I was as fit as I've ever been in my