NEWCASTLE are giving a trial to teenage Scarborough midfielder Romain Faure after receiving good reports on the Frenchman.

Faure, 18, joined Scarborough from Cannes in 1999 and can also play in defence.

A spokesman confirmed: "He's training with Newcastle for a week."

Faure got his chance because of Newcastle coach Mick Wadsworth's links with the Conference club.

And the youngster, who has made nine appearances this season for Scarborough, is seen as a good prospect for the future.

Kieron Dyer, hoping to be called into Sven Goran Eriksson's first England squad today, is already celebrating after being voted Newcastle's latest player of the month.

Dyer has bounced back from a shin injury and the embarrassment of being red-carded at Spurs last month.

"The sending off was the low point of my career at Newcastle," he confessed.

Eriksson would love to be able to call on Alan Shearer as well but the striker is standing by his decision to quit international football.

Shearer returns from a nine-week injury lay-off against Manchester City tomorrow.

"Alan is flying in training and there has been no problem with Kieron's shin problem either," said Wadsworth.

"The players put in a lot of work in La Manga and again this week, and hopefully we will see the

benefit."

Old boy Steve Howey is prepared to have an injection in order to face his former club - even though the City defender has a pathological hatred of needles!

Howey confirmed that he will have a jab in his broken toe before kick off at St James' Park - but it won't match the pain he'll feel if Toon fans give him the bird.

The 29-year-old defender, who spent 14 years at Newcastle, confessed: "I'll be disappointed if I don't get a half-decent reception because we had some pretty good times together, especially during the Kevin Keegan era.

"But that's not what I'm going up there for. Newcastle was a big part of my life but once the whistle blows I won't be caught up in the emotional stuff."

l Shola Ameobi is making Nigeria sweat over his international future.

The 19-year-old Newcastle striker has yet to inform Nigeria whether he will available for the African Youth championship next month.

"He has been officially invited but we are yet to hear from him," said a spokesman. Ameobi moved to England when he was five and boss Bobby Robson is urging the youngster to keep his options open.

l The Premier League will earn £178m from overseas broadcast rights over the next three years.

The deal was announced following yesterday's meeting of Premier League chairmen, which also set a deadline of the end of April for negotiations on a new sponsor to be finalised.

However, the position of Chelsea chairman Ken Bates on the FA board following his criticism of FA chief executive Adam Crozier and the new Wembley Stadium was not raised at the meeting - he is still on holiday, as is Crozier.

The deal for overseas broadcast rights was agreed with a consortium made up of Canal+, Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, TWI and Octagon CSI. It is considerably more than the £98m agreed for the previous three seasons.

FA Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: ''This is an exceptionally good arrangement for all parties."