NEWCASTLE'S dead ball supremo Alan Shearer was quick to hail Laurent Robert's 35-yard free-kick as 'one hell of a strike'.

Although Shearer bagged another brace to take his season's tally to 19, it was the Frenchman's goal that set St James' Park alight. And the skipper admitted even he had no chance of getting the ball off the Frenchman. Shearer said: "It was a tremendous strike.

"It went in like and arrow - no-one was going to take the ball off him that was for sure. It set us on the road and got us into life.

"It lit the whole place up - the atmosphere, the crowd and the stadium. It was a hell of a strike.

"It got us off to the start that we needed because after the first five minutes we were certainly very sluggish."

Shearer himself was inches away from hitting a hat-trick when his twenty yard screamer in the second-half rebounded off the post.

"I thought it was a hat-trick - I thought it was in," he said.

"Nobby did brilliantly - it was great pull back for me.

"I struck it as sweet as I could. I really thought it was going in.

"I can't complain, it would have been nice to score another hat-trick but I'll be happy with two every week."

Newcastle's refusal to drop out of the Championship race is as much down to the captain's form as any other player and he, along with the whole squad, believe their worthy of their position.

"We are playing some good attacking and exciting football," he said.

"We deserve to be competing up there.

"Southampton was a great win for us, we're very happy."

But Shearer also played his captain's role on the pitch, berating his defenders - particularly Nikos Dabizas - for the Southampton goal.

He said: "It was aimed at the back four in general - I thought there was too big a gap between the defence and midfield. They were taking advantage of it.

"I thought we looked very threatening going forward but we looked anxious at the back.

"We tightened up after the break. We got the second goal at a good time and after the third we were always comfortable."

Shearer's strike partner Craig Bellamy is expected to be hit with a club record £100,000 fine following his police caution for common assault on a female student last week. The club is expected to issue a statement today regarding the punishment - a fine of five weeks wages.

Shepherd is also expected to ban all his players from drinking in Newcastle's bars and clubs for the foreseeable future.

Read more about Newcastle FC here.