IT was supposed to be a celebration, but the champagne may have been left firmly on ice at Alan Shearer's Ponteland pile on Saturday night.

With a club career 300th goal up for grabs against his former club then, as Rovers boss Graeme Souness agreed, 'you could put your house on Shearer scoring'.

But personal glory appeared quite low on the skipper's agenda and if anything demonstrated exactly what Newcastle United mean to the former England striker then the first 50 minutes at Ewood Park did exactly that.

Shearer - receiving his usual mixed reception from the club to which he almost single-handedly brought Premiership glory - was ready to give his all to the cause and if it brought him number 300 then all good and well.

After nine minutes he found his beloved team down to ten men and two goals behind.

It was then the captain literally dragged his team up by their bootstraps to force them back into a game that had appeared over before it had hardly begun.

He received a little help from Aussie defender Lucas Neill, whose unnecessary shove brought the penalty that he put away in his own emphatic style after 35 minutes.

Cue the celebrations.

Unfortunately for a man who had reached a landmark in English football, it was very muted. The typical arm raised in triumph and nothing approaching the joy when he bagged Premiership goal number 200 at home to Charlton last season.

But there was work still to be done, and he left the celebrations to nearly half the stadium who, along with the away fans, stood to acknowledge a true goalscoring legend.

A fact that was not lost on the man himself.

"Yes I was aware of it. I certainly recognised it after my first goal with the penalty," said Shearer, who also found the net 30 times in 63 international appearances.

"I saw the people stand up and I certainly appreciated it. I am pleased but I would much prefer it to be in better circumstances.

"I would rather I hadn't scored and we'd picked up the three points.

"A large chunk of the 300 have been here and I had a feeling I might get one."

But Shearer was well aware that there was a job still to do and after 48 minutes he appeared to have done more than his fair share by grabbing the equaliser.

A corner from Laurent Robert and Shearer was there with a trademark header from eight yards - admittedly Rovers' defence had decided not to mark him on this occasion.

A minute later and he thought it was a hat-trick, but his finish from Gary Speed's cross was ruled offside by the assistant referee.

After that it all went very horribly wrong as Shearer explained.

"We showed great character coming back to 2-2 but I'm not so sure they won the game - I think we gave them it more than anything," said Shearer.

"If you analyse those goals from Newcastle's point of view then it was too many mistakes, and you can't do that at this level."

Mistake one was after four minutes with a surprisingly error-prone Shay Given dropping Lucas Neill's cross and Dwight Yorke seeing his goalbound effort handled by Nikos Dabizas. David Dunn converted the penalty and Shearer had sympathy for the Greek international, who was immediately red-carded by referee Alan Wiley.

"It's just an instinct thing - the ball was going in the net and he tried to stop it," he said.

"You can't lay the blame on Nikos because it's just one of those things. It left us with a mountain to climb."

That mountain doubled in size on nine minutes when the highly impressive Dunn exchanged passes with former Magpie Keith Gillespie on the right of the box, before drilling in a cross-shot under the body of Given.

Dunn then enjoyed a purple patch where he dictated play as Rovers' extra man in midfield began to tell.

But Shearer hit back with a double before Newcastle's defence went to sleep to gift Rovers three goals.

Manager Sir Bobby Robson put Newcastle's second demise of the game down to a poor refereeing decision that led to Blackburn's third on 55 minutes.

"The referee gave a corner when it should have been our free-kick for a foul by Gillespie on Andy Griffin," said Robson.

"The game then swung their way because the corner was cleared to Dunn whose shot spun over Andy O'Brien and (Martin) Taylor knocked the ball in."

Ashington-born Taylor bagged a second with a quarter of an hour remaining.

The former Darlington loanee was unmarked at a corner to power in a header which Given palmed into the net.

Inbetween Taylor's double, Given was again at fault in failing to hold a header from Gillespie, which he pushed onto the legs of Griffin, who claimed a very unlucky own goal.

The game also saw the return of England international Matt Jansen after career-threatening injuries sustained in a motorbike crash, and his substitute appearance seemed apt against the club he supported as a boy.

But any celebrations were limited to the home side.

The Newcastle skipper must hope for a win at home to Juventus on Wednesday so he can then invite the whole squad round to open the bubbly.

Result: Blackburn Rovers 5 Newcastle United 2.

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