A RAGING Alan Shearer declared he was ready to "do" Grimsby Town skipper Justin Whittle after finding himself on the end of a vicious elbow at Blundell Park last night.

Shearer, whose winning goal took him to within four of Jackie Milburn's all-time Newcastle United goalscoring record, needed three stitches at half-time, and was so incensed he even accompanied manager Graeme Souness to demand why referee Mark Halsey did not dismiss the centre-half.

"At half-time I just wanted to go out there and do him because he did me out there," said Shearer, who pointedly refused to shake hands with the player at the end.

"It would have been easy for me to stick one on him. He knows he did me and the referee was only five yards away and did not do anything about it.

"But I got my answer back by scoring that goal.

"I wanted to do him but that was the perfect response."

Souness also agreed the challenge, which he watched on a TV replay at the break, had no place on the football pitch.

"I said to the referee 'wait until you see that on the telly and see what you think'," he said. "Alan was entitled to be angry. I don't know what defenders think they will achieve by doing that to him because he is always going to come back at you."

Shearer, Souness said, regularly felt aggrieved, but he had more than just cause last night.

"He is an angry man every day of the week," he said, tongue in cheek.

Grimsby manager, Russell Slade, claimed he did not see the incident, but said it would have been out of character for his captain.

"It was somewhat of a bruising battle between Whittle and Shearer all evening," he said. "But for me to make any comment I would certainly have to see it with my own eyes."

Instead of castigating his player, who also needed a stitch, this time in a hand wound, Slade chose to praise him.

"Alan Shearer is a very competitive player, always has been, and so is my centre half, at the level he has played at," said Slade.

"On such occasions, particularly in cup ties, you can get very bruising battles, and that's what it appeared to be tonight, a real battle.

"If anything did go on it's out of character for my centre half.

"He has an exquisite record and career at the level he has played at."

Souness, meanwhile, who revealed Shola Ameobi was missing because of a hamstring tweak and explained he did not want to risk Kieron Dyer, said he believed his side had acquitted themselves well.

"With the players we had, I was happy with both the performance and the result tonight," he said.

"From that performance it's easy to see why Grimsby do well in their league and easy to see why they would upset any Premiership team coming here.

"But I think with the squad we had out we have dealt with them very well tonight and limited them to next to nothing. Only towards the end when they were launching balls from silly free-kicks we were giving away did they look like causing us any problems."

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