ALAN SHEARER found his goalscoring touch in his first outing in the Newcastle number nine shirt as Kevin Keegan side warmed up for tomorrow's Charity Shield with a comfortable 2-0 win over Lincoln last night.
Shearer coolly slotted home a first half penalty to open his account in front of a 10,000 Sincil Bank crowd who had paid club record receipts of £80,000 to watch Newcastle.
Belgian defender Philippe Albert stole forward to settle the issue by doubling the Geordies' tally midway through the second half as Newcastle, minus only the services of virus hit Les Ferdinand, turned on the style against their third division hosts.
The game was arranged as part of the £400,000 deal that took Darren Huckerby to St James' Park last season - and Keegan showed that he was prepared to give his appreciative audience value for money by unleashing Shearer for the full 90 minutes.
It was nine minutes before the former Blackburn star managed to get even a touch in a hectic opening - but when he did it almost brought a goal.
The new Newcastle hero chested down to Robert Lee before moving on to the return ball to clatter a right foot shot just wide from 20 yards.
The next time Lincoln gave Shearer a sniff of the target they were made to pay. Steve Holmes handled needlessly under pressure from the menacing striker as they challenged for Beardsley's deep 33rd minute cross - and Shearer dispatched the spot kick with minimum fuss.
