Stoke City 1, Newcastle United 1

Apr 13 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

IT ARRIVED seven days and 81 stomach-churning minutes late but finally, Alan Shearer's reign as Newcastle United manager has its fairytale start.

Summoned off the bench by his childhood hero, local boy Andrew Carroll conjured a headed goal that Shearer himself would have marvelled at.

Extending his neck muscles to meet a sublime Damien Duff delivery, the lifelong Newcastle supporter steered the ball past Thomas Sorensen with the certainty of a veteran – resuscitating United on an afternoon where avoiding defeat was critical.

It was uplifting, inspirational and heart-warming stuff.

And witnessing the thunderous outpouring of relief and emotion from supporters and players alike, it is hard not to believe that it has injected fresh impetus and belief into United’s flagging relegation fight.

Unfortunately, it came after another 80 minutes when doubts once again emerged about whether Newcastle, quite simply, have the necessary quality to chisel 12 points from their next six games.

Make no mistake – extricating United from the relegation zone before the season’s end will match anything that Shearer managed when he was clad in the black and white stripes.

Just over a week spent in charge will surely have led Shearer to that conclusion.

There can be no other as he surveys a squad scandalously light on the resources and strength-in-depth to fight a relegation battle that they fully deserve to be in.

The players that did put themselves forward for the Stoke game – and the handsomely remunerated Obafemi Martins was not among them – showed admirable bottle, fight and character to keep themselves in a contest that was running away from them for an hour.

Witness Ryan Taylor – reviled, kicked at and targeted by the febrile Stoke supporters as he trod the right wing-back beat.