NEWCASTLE United skipper Alan Shearer has warned strike partner Craig Bellamy to keep his mouth shut or face being singled out as a trouble-maker.

Bellamy was booked for diving by referee Mike Riley when he went sprawling in the penalty area under the challenge of Sunderland's Matt Piper in the St. James' Park derby.

Newcastle will ask Mr Riley to review the incident after Bellamy vehemently protested his innocence and both manager Sir Bobby Robson and Shearer labelled the yellow card "harsh''.

But Welsh international Bellamy, who opened the scoring in the second minute of Saturday's 2-0 victory over Sunderland, is already at the centre of a UEFA probe into his head-first lunge at Dynamo Kiev's Tiberiu Ghioane in last Wednesday's Champions' League clash in the Ukraine.

And Shearer stressed: "Unfortunately, people are starting to look out for Craig now, and he has to learn to keep his mouth shut in certain situations.

"But that's what spurs him on and that's the way he is.''

Shearer, however, had praise for the way Bellamy has fought back from a knee operation for tendinitis, a condition which also forced the former England captain to undergo career-saving surgery.

"People don't realise how hard it is, when you've been out for about seven months like he has, to come back and fit straight in again,'' said Shearer. "It's virtually impossible, so he needed a bit of breathing space. There's so much pressure on him because people expect so much of him, particularly after how well he did last season.

"But he does give us a different dimension with his sheer pace, and when Kieron Dyer is in midfield, there aren't many quicker than those two. Once they're away, no-one is going to catch them.''

Shearer maintained that Saturday's success, Newcastle's first in a top-flight home game against Sunderland since New Year's Day 1985, was the biggest in his six years with the club.

When he struck Newcastle's second goal, a beaming Shearer was a picture of unrestrained joy as he leapt in the air in front of the main stand.

It was the moment he exorcised the demons of encounters with Sunderland at St. James' in the recent past, when he was humiliatingly dropped to the bench by Ruud Gullit in the Wearsiders' 2-1 win in 1999 and saw his penalty saved by Thomas Sorensen as the result was replicated a year later.

Shearer said: "This was a huge game. It was the ideal game at the ideal time for us, particularly after three straight defeats against Leeds, Chelsea and Dynamo Kiev.

"There's always pressure, and even more so in these sort of games. I've played in a few of these now, but this was without doubt the most important and the biggest I've been involved in since I came here.

"That was because of where we were in the league (second bottom) and the starts to the season both we and Sunderland have had.

"It's the sweetest victory too.'' At 32, Shearer shows no signs of creaking under the strain of a demanding schedule.

The Magpies' involvement in the Champions' League means that when they face Feyenoord tomorrow night, they will be playing their tenth game this season and fifth in just under a fortnight.

With a trip to Birmingham on Saturday followed by a flight to Turin to face Juventus a week tomorrow, there is no respite.

And Shearer acknowledges that squad rotation is "inevitable'' as Robson aims to keep players fit and fresh.

"He's made everyone aware that he might have to rest players or leave players out, whatever way you want to put it, simply because of the sheer number of games we're going to have,'' said Shearer.

"It would be very difficult for everyone to play at the tempo we play at in all those games, so it's inevitable that over the next two or three months, you are going to be left out at some stage.''

Meanwhile, in a rare gesture of Magpie magnanimity towards Sunderland, Shearer confessed he hopes Peter Reid pulls the Black Cats out of the morass which threatens to consume their manager.

"I have the utmost respect for him,'' said Shearer. "He shouldn't be judged on one performance like this, he should be judged on what he's done there over the years.

"Sometimes, I think managers have an impossible job. Sometimes you have millionaires at 21 or 22 and trying to tell them what to do sometimes doesn't work.

"You have to be very clever at man-management and Bobby has that off to a fine art. His man-management stands out whether he's dealing with 17-year-olds or 35-year-olds.''

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