Source: Team_Talk
Megson: Shearer has it Al to prove
Shearer has been charged with saving the Magpies from a disastrous relegation to the Championship and has admitted the club face a massive fight to avoid the drop.
Newcastle lie 18th in the table - two points from safety - and with just one win in their last 12 games.
Bolton manager Megson, who enjoyed a brief spell as a Newcastle player in the mid-1980s, acknowledged the galvanising impact Shearer's impact will have on the ailing club.
Yet Megson had a thinly veiled warning for Shearer as he said: "It's a fantastic move from Newcastle's point of view but it doesn't alter the fact that they've still got eight games to play and it's about the players who cross the line.
"Yes, it will galvanise a crowd who are probably a little bit down with the position the club are in.
"All that will now disappear and even if they might not play well, I don't think there will be criticism in the short term.
"In terms of lifting the atmosphere around the club they couldn't do much better.
"Alan Shearer is a competitor, but he's not on the television any more talking about other clubs - he's right in amongst it like everyone else down there."
Shearer, who has brought in former Southampton team-mate and ex-QPR manager Iain Dowie to assist him, takes over from caretaker boss Chris Hughton - himself standing in for Joe Kinnear who is recovering from heart bypass surgery.
Kinnear was brought in after Keegan resigned just eight months into his second spell at the club.
Megson believes only Keegan and Shearer have the aura to lift the Tyneside masses in their hour of need.
"Alan knows the passion of the Geordies a lot better than anybody else," said Megson.
"There is probably only him or Kevin Keegan they could give the job to and know they're guaranteed to get a great reception.
"But it's still down to the players to go out and perform."
Meanwhile, Megson insists he harbours no ill feeling towards England coach Fabio Capello for again overlooking Kevin Davies.
Injuries to Emile Heskey and later Darren Bent in the build-up to last night's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine looked to have presented Davies, who had been named for the second time in a provisional 28-man squad by the Italian coach, with a perfect opportunity to earn his first full international call.
But after being shunned, first in favour of Spurs striker Bent and then Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor, the prospect of Davies earning his first cap looks bleak.
"I thought Kevin might get the call," admitted Megson.
"You cannot criticise Fabio because his job is to get results for England, regardless of who plays and how they play.
"From our point of view, to have someone right near the top of the goal-scoring charts, it would have been a nice recognition for Kevin and the football club.
"But there's no criticism from my point of view because you've got to get results and Fabio has done that."
