BOBBY ROBSON last night saluted Alan Shearer's dramatic rejuvenation after admitting he feared he had seen the last of the former England captain.

Shearer, Newcastle's talismanic striker, has returned with a vengeance, scoring three goals in as many games since his comeback from make-or-break knee surgery.

The Magpies' skipper followed up his double strike in the 4-1 victory at Middlesbrough with the winning goal in last Saturday's scintillating 4-3 triumph over champions Manchester United at St. James' Park.

Shearer now aims to keep the goals coming in tomorrow's televised game at West Ham as Newcastle bid to put an end to their capital punishment by winning for the first time in 26 visits to London.

And his manager believes 31-year-old Shearer, who underwent two operations for a long-standing tendinitis problem, is now close to the form he showed two years ago when Robson took charge on Tyneside.

Shearer flew to the United States in May when world-renowned knee specialist Richard Steadman performed the second operation at his Colorado clinic.

And Robson conceded: "We knew if we didn't get Alan's leg right, we might have seen the last of him. We knew his career was at least slightly at risk.

"He might have had a year or a year-and-a-half out, and at his age that doesn't do you any good.

"We've been fortunate that he's come good. He's had an excellent operation by the top man and it's cost us a lot of money, but what's that compared to his value?

"He's a great leader and a great personality and he's getting back to what he was in my first season here when he got 30 goals.

"He told me that, last season, he wouldn't have been able to hit the shot he did when he scored his second at Middlesbrough.

"He said he wouldn't have been able to strike it with that venom and power because he didn't have the knee for it.

"We're benefitting from the fact that he's got two good legs again. We took him off at Middlesbrough, but he had 120 minutes with the extra-time against Brentford in the Worthington Cup, and three days later he got a late winner against Manchester United.

"He's improving all the time. You saw his stature last weekend. Everybody went on about Laurent Robert's free-kick, but the way Alan held the ball up against Laurent Blanc, as much to say: 'You aren't going to get it,' then got knocked over to win the free-kick, was typical Shearer.''

Newcastle leapt to fourth place in the Premiership with last week's win, and Robson said: "When we get Kieron Dyer, Carl Cort and Gary Speed fit and available again, we'll have a very good squad.

"We need one more player and the chairman and I are always in dialogue about that.

"But I won't make a hasty decision about it - there's nothing urgent. We're taking our time to make sure we get the right player at the right price.

"We get players thrown at us every day. There are more agents than players at the moment!

"But I won't rest until I get the player I want.''

Old campaigner Robson is looking forward to locking horns with managerial novice Glenn Roeder.

The former Newcastle skipper has made an inauspicious start as West Ham boss after seeing his side hit the bottom of the table.

But Robson said: "I've always liked West Ham.

"When I was England manager I used to enjoy going to West Ham because they have a tradition for playing nice football.

"We're well aware of our London hoodoo. It's never been easy in London at places like Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and West Ham, and now we have Fulham in the top flight as well.

"West Ham might be bottom, but look what Middlesbrough have done. They've gone from bottom to mid-table in three days with two wins.

"West Ham didn't have Frederic Kanoute or Paolo Di Canio in their side at Middlesbrough last weekend. That's like us playing without Shearer and Craig Bellamy.

"But they've still got Joe Cole, Trevor Sinclair and Michael Carrick who are all fine players.

Glenn Roeder is a young manager who will be desperate to improve the situation, so we'll have to give a fighting performance and forget about the win over Manchester United.

"We hit bullseye against them, but can we hit bullseye with the next dart?''

Robson, meanwhile, expects Dyer (calf) and Cort (knee) to be back in action in six weeks and two months respectively, while Speed (hamstring) is set to return to training on Monday.

* Newcastle have checked on Nottingham Forest's 18-year-old midfield starlet Jermaine Jenas.

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