SIR BOBBY ROBSON is confident that injury-prone Newcastle midfielder Kieron Dyer can go from "strength-to-strength'' as the countdown starts to England's Euro 2004 campaign.

Dyer was named in coach Sven-Goran Eriksson's provisional 23-man party yesterday despite making only two appearances in a month.

Manager Robson feared Dyer would miss the rest of the season when he suffered a recurrence of hamstring trouble in the Magpies' game at Aston Villa on April 18.

But Dyer made a surprise comeback in the visit to Southampton six days ago and lasted the distance in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Liverpool, where Robson's side secured fifth place in the Premiership to clinch a UEFA Cup spot next season.

Dyer has endured another season blighted by injuries and off-field controversy and recently admitted that he was among a clutch of Newcastle players who had been carried away with their own publicity.

But Robson is backing 25-year-old Dyer to offer Eriksson an extra option in Portugal this summer.

"He's not fully fit and he's lost a bit of sharpness, but that should come back with good training,'' said the former England boss.

"He's tested his hamstring and he should go from strength-to-strength and get better. He played 70 minutes or so at Southampton and, as I've said, he blew a gasket. But he played 90 minutes on Saturday, so he's getting there.''

Dyer is Newcastle's sole representative in the England squad, with fellow midfielder Jermaine Jenas (thigh) and centre-back Jonathan Woodgate (hamstring) concentrating on overcoming injuries in time for next season.

Robson, meanwhile, is booked for summit talks with chairman Freddy Shepherd this week to conduct a post-mortem on Newcastle's season and look to the future.

And Shepherd has given a broad hint that it could involve a more prominent role for skipper Alan Shearer, who retires at the end of next term.

Shearer recently attained his UEFA 'B' coaching badge and Shepherd is known to be keen to see him integrated into the backroom set-up with a view to possibly becoming a contender to succeed Robson when the manager's contract runs out next summer.

Shepherd, hugely disappointed that Newcastle failed to qualify for the Champions League, said: "Alan has 12 months left on his contract. We'll have a chat with him before that expires.

"We are all in this together and the players are disappointed at what has happened this season. So am I and so is the manager, and I am sure the supporters are very disappointed.

"We had a good season in the UEFA Cup in reaching the semi-finals, but as far as the Premiership is concerned three points out of 18 at the start of the season and three out of the last nine were just not good enough.

"I am not happy that we are not in the Champions League qualifiers and I don't suppose the supporters are either.

"But at least being in Europe next season gets us back on track.

"I will be meeting Sir Bobby this week, but we will leave it a couple of days until the dust settles on the season.

"We know what we have to do but we won't panic and what we have to do first is make sure we have a steady ship.

"There is absolutely no chance of us doing a Leeds United I can assure our fans of that."

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