Newcastle United Football Club News

• Nickname:Magpies
• Founded:1881
• Manager:Alan Pardew

• Ground:St James' Park
• Capacity:52,193

Shearer ponders Barton option

29 Apr 2009 - 13:29:54

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Newcastle United's interim manager Alan Shearer may gamble and throw midfielder Joey Barton into the Magpies' starting line-up at Liverpool on Monday.

The 26-year-old Scouser has not featured for United since late January, but was named on the bench for the goalless draw at home to Portsmouth last time out.

Shearer told The Chronicle: "It was not right to put Joey Barton in on Monday night. However, he will be having a full week's training this week.

"He will have that behind him for the weekend and he could be involved at Anfield. It all depends on how his training goes this week.

"We did not know how the Portsmouth game was going to play out.

"He has not had that many training sessions, but we thought if we needed him for ten or 15 minutes at the end, he could be an option and we could have given him a run-out."