Source: Daily_Mail
Stoke City 1 Newcastle 1: Shearer makes his managerial point as Carroll rescues point at Stoke
They do not taunt you withrude songs on the Match of the Day sofa.
At least notlive on air anyway.
They do not prepare you for the reality of facing Stoke's aerial bombardment.
Finishing school: Andy Carroll celebrates his goal, having had striking lessons from Alan Shearer
And they do not tell you what to do when one of your senior strikers pulls out at the last minute with a mystery groin strain.
You can guess which of those issues was weighing most heavily on Alan Shearer's mind as he left the Britannia Stadium on Saturday night after picking up his first point as Newcastle boss from his first away game.
Pride over his team's ability to fightback for a draw gave way to simmering indignation at the way Obafemi Martins had cried off on the morning of the match.
While young Andy Carroll's equalising header bore the Shearer hallmark, it is hard to imagine the former England striker letting his team-mates down before such an important contest.
Shearer could not say as much.
But he made it quite clear this was one lesson in his crash course in football management he could well have done without.
'Oba rang and said he'd woken up with a sore groin and was unable to play,' said Shearer.
Newcastle United's Obafemi Martins (left)withdrew himself from the Magpies squad to face Stoke
'We have to believe him. But I wasn't too happy that I got the call at 11am, particularly after we trained on Thursday and Friday and had massages on Friday evening and there was no sign of it.
'He didn't sleep in, that's not true. And we were meeting just after 11 o'clock, so he hasn't broken any curfews.
