Shearer class tells in a difficult week

Newcastle - 1 Southampton - 0 Gordon Strachan is not averse to watching the odd western, but he did not enjoy Saturday afternoon's take on Cowboys and Indians

"If you want to kill the Indians you have to kill their chief," reflected Southampton's manager, before explaining that his side's failure to negate Alan Shearer had been responsible for their second successive defeat.

Although Lee Bowyer startled St James' by having a good game, Newcastle would have been highly unlikely to register their first Premiership win of the season if Shearer had not been on the pitch.

A strong character in a dressing-room filled by several impressionable youngsters comprising the so-called Tyneside "Brat Pack", Shearer may still be a trifle miffed that Newcastle were a little tardy about offering him his newly-signed one-year contract extension, but, without his on- and off-field influence, Bobby Robson's job would be immeasurably tougher.

It seemed entirely appropriate that, at the end of a week in which a website run by Sunderland supporters had sparked erroneous rumours of Robson's resignation, Shearer claimed his 250th league goal at the expense of the club where he began his career.

The winner, dispatched a minute before half-time, arrived when Shearer's right boot connected with a smart pass from the otherwise dozy Jermaine Jenas. Shearer's spontaneous, rising, shot from just inside the area zipped across Antti Niemi and into the far corner.

It assuaged Tyneside's collective anxiety. "Alan can handle a very nervous occasion like this; he has the character, attitude, determination and the ability," said Robson.

Shearer will travel to Istanbul to analyse England's date with Turkey on Saturday for Sky but Gary Speed rejects suggestions that the number nine is spikier behind the microphone than in the penalty area these days. "When he's in the box and facing goal, he's as sharp as anyone," insisted the midfielder.Kieron Dyer had been mooted as a right-wing alternative to David Beckham, but it is a relief for England that Beckham has recovered from a recent injury, because Dyer disappointed yesterday.

Ditto a well shackled James Beattie who, in mitigation, was badly betrayed by a poor Southampton midfield berated by Strachan for playing "scared football".

Unable to get behind Newcastle's defence, the visitors' sole realistic scoring chance was a 30-yard slice of speculation from Paul Telfer, acrobatically diverted by Shay Given.

Had Sven-Goran Eriksson been present he could not have failed to have been impressed by Bowyer's left-wing performance. Bowyer had hitherto compounded his unpopularity via a series of lacklustre displays, but this could come to represent a watershed in his relationship with Newcastle's crowd.

"Lee's been trying to be too nice and I told him 'you need to get meaner'; without being stupid," said Robson. "Bowyer's movement off the ball is quite superb but the people at Leeds had the vision to play with him and we've still got to learn."

Buoyed by supportive choruses from a crowd who chanted "there's only one Bobby Robson", he conceded it had been "an unpleasant week" but retained sufficient humour to speculate, "Not the chairman of Real Madrid is it?" when his mobile rang during the post-match media debriefing.