GRAEME Souness turned the heat up ahead of Newcastle's Premiership clash with Blackburn tomorrow by admitting the club is a better place without Craig Bellamy.

Bellamy, who made a £5m summer switch from St James' Park to Ewood Park is in line to make his home debut for Rovers tomorrow.

The 26-year-old striker was shown the door by United after calling Souness a liar live on TV - following a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal in January - and was initially sent out on loan to Celtic until the end of the season when his future would then be resolved.

Bellamy has maintained a dignified silence ahead of his former club's visit to Lancashire.

The 26-year-old has made only one appearance for Blackburn - a 3-1 defeat at West Ham - after picking up an injury while on international duty for Wales.

But Rovers' boss Mark Hughes has hinted Bellamy could start tomorrow after coming through two weeks of trouble-free training.

Souness did not mention Bellamy in person, but it was clear the United boss was taking a thinly veiled swipe at the unsettling effect his former striker had at the club, when he revealed his dressing room is a much better place to be than when he first arrived at the club.

"I firmly believe we have a cracking dressing room where nothing is off limits in terms of what we can discuss and what we can say to each other. People are not always happy about it but there is no one acting in a negative way," said Souness, who has seen his side take only two points from the opening five games and score only once.

"I'm far happier going to war with a group of players I have this year than some of the ones I inherited. I think we have improved the squad this summer and only a fool would say the signings are not good signings because no one has seen them play yet."

Souness added: "He (Bellamy) is a very good player and one we know very well. Obviously there is more than just Craig in the team that can hurt us but hopefully we can contain them on the day.

"I'm not going to talk about Craig Bellamy or any other individual to any great expense. It is a team game and I know people would love me to talk about him for five minutes but I won't do that.

"It's not my business to talk about other team's players. I'll talk only about my players."

Souness and Bellamy are not the only pair with Blackburn connections and coaches Dean Saunders and Alan Murray both followed the Scot to Tyneside.

But the biggest link of all, of course, is Alan Shearer, who returns to the club where he won his one and only domestic medal - the Premier League - for the very last time as a player.

Blackburn fans have never forgiven their former favourite, who plundered 112 league goals for Rovers in 132 appearances, for quitting the club in 1996 for a then world record £15m transfer.

The 35-year-old striker has yet to hit the Premiership target since last finding the net at Manchester City on February 2 and is still six short of Jackie Milburn's all-time record.

Souness admits he wouldn't be surprised if his captain got off the mark for the season this weekend.

"He's the greatest player the Premiership has ever seen and he's having a dry patch at the moment, but I wouldn't back against him to score against his old club on Sunday," said the 52-year-old Scot.

When Souness managed to persuade his skipper to stop on another season he didn't envisage having to play him in every game. But United's crippling injury list has left the Newcastle boss with little option.

"When we signed him for another year we made it plain that he wouldn't be playing every game and if we had the players available we would have rested him," said Souness.

"We have had to play him in every game for 90 minutes. It is asking a lot of a 35-year-old. It is an extremely competitive business and when we get some more people fit we will give him an hour, give him 45 minutes or the last 20 minutes. That is our intention as the season goes on but right now we're asking a great deal of him.

"But at the moment he'll be excited about playing with Michael Owen and I'm sure that will give him an extra buzz."

The Newcastle manager is under no illusion of the task ahead for his thread-bare squad but admits they will be ready for it all the same.

"They are quite formidable at home and they have players I know and some I don't know quite so well," he said.

"It'll be a difficult game. They are aggressive and work extremely hard and if we're to get a result we'll have to match them."

l Hughes insists his Blackburn side will not set out to settle old scores with Souness .

''It's about three Premiership points, that's the way we are viewing it,'' Hughes said. ''It's an opportunity for us to build on what we've done so far.''

Hughes admits Bellamy - or any other player - would approach a game against a former club differently, but has backed the 26-year-old to add a ''cutting edge'' to Rovers' attack after three games without a goal.

''He was brought to the club for that cutting edge and at this point we haven't got him on the pitch yet,'' Hughes added.

''There is always a little bit of feeling when you play against one of your old clubs, I certainly had those feelings. I'm sure Craig will have those feeling but first and foremost he wants to get back on the pitch and score goals, because that's what he is all about.''

Hughes added: ''Craig Bellamy was a very successful player for Newcastle, he scored a lot of goals and the fans enjoyed watching him play. We hope he has a similar impact at Blackburn.

''At times personalities clash and maybe that happened, but from my dealing with Craig he's always been a first-class professional looking to improve himself.'