NORTH-EAST football hero Alan Shearer showed off his new son, Will, yesterday and said: "Life doesn't get much better than this."

Shearer scored his 200th top-flight goal this week and saw Newcastle go to the top of the Premiership.

The 30-year-old Magpies captain admitted he cried at Will's birth last Friday, when the baby weighed in at a healthy 8lb 6oz at Newcastle's Royal Victory Infirmary.

Proudly posing with his son and wife, Lainya, 29, and daughters Chloe, seven, and Hollie, five, Shearer said: "At last I've got an ally in case the girls gang up on me.

"I have witnessed the births of my children and it is an amazing experience. It was just a fantastic surprise to have a baby son."

Will is the first of Shearer's children to be born in his native North-East, since his return to the region in a then-record £15m transfer from Blackburn in 1996.

Punters have already taken up the offer from bookies of odds of 250-1 on Will playing for England.

l The Shearer family invited the Press to make a donation to the NSPCC for using this picture - and The Northern Echo is happy to contribute.