HE may only be two matches into his managerial career but Alan Shearer’s work on the training ground is already reaping its rewards at Newcastle.

Just ask Andy Carroll.

With Newcastle trailing to Abdoulaye Faye’s first half opener at Stoke City, Carroll’s timely jog into the box to meet Damien Duff ’s centre with a looping header secured what could be a vital point in the fight for Premier League survival.

“It looks like a Shearer goal,” was team-mate Habib Beye’s assessment outside the Britannia Stadium tunnel after Saturday’s draw – and he was not wrong.

Since making his debut for the club he supported as a boy as a late substitute against Palermo in November 2006, the Gateshead-born striker has always been well thought of at St James’ Park but regarded as a rough diamond.

Shearer has immediately tuned into the 20-year-old’s strengths and weaknesses and has taken it upon himself in the last 11 days to give Carroll his own personal touch.

And after a double in the reserves’ win over Manchester City a week ago in front of his new boss, Carroll’s third goal in the Premier League this season could have earned him a starting place at Tottenham next Sunday.

“Iain Dowie and myself have both worked with him.

How much individual work he’s had over the last 18 months I’m not too sure, but he needs that,” said Shearer.

“He needs coaching and he needs to put the effort in and work hard in training, and he’ll get his rewards like he did at Stoke.

“He won’t get carried away, we won’t allow him to get carried away. He’s got a valuable point for us that could prove massive but he’ll be back on Monday and Tuesday, working on the individual sessions as we have done with everyone, and as a group, and then we’ll start again.”

Shearer, the club’s leading goalscorer, described Carroll’s 81st minute equaliser as “towering and magnificent” – words that have been missing from Newcastle’s play so often this season.

But with Obafemi Martins’ place in the team for the remaining six matches under threat and Michael Owen struggling for form, Carroll’s rise to prominence may have arrived at exactly the right time.

With Shearer as his master, Beye is confident that Newcastle are going to see plenty more from the apprentice.

“Andy is a nice lad, a Geordie, he is from Newcastle and loves the club. He is proud of what he is doing now and he is a young lad who will learn from everyone,” said Beye.

“It will help Andy that we now have a manager who was a striker, a top striker, who he can learn from. Andy will be given some good advice from the manager.

“He has shown his quality before, he showed his quality again and it’s good to have him in the squad.”

Shearer may still be looking for his first win in charge, after a defeat to Chelsea was followed by this draw at Stoke, but there was a sense around the Newcastle dressing room that they believe Carroll’s intervention is the start of a climb to safety.

But they are certainly in no position to take such a revival for granted, having struggled for almost an hour to gain any sort of rhythm against a Stoke team intent on bombarding the visitors’ defence.

It was not that such an approach was unexpected, with Shearer setting out with a new-look three-man central defence in a bid to cope with the predicted rigours posed by Stoke’s full-throttle approach.

But having successfully managed to thwart the vast majority of Rory Delap’s long throws, a lapse in concentration led to them conceding the opening goal inside 33 minutes.

Rather than Delap being the source, however, it was another former Sunderland man, Liam Lawrence, who curled over the perfect corner for Faye to lose Shola Ameobi and head low beyond Steve Harper.

“First of all I didn’t think it was a corner, but on the other hand I was bitterly disappointed because we went man-to-man marking and he’s got away from Shola,” said Shearer.

“Shola held his hands up but it was another individual error and lack of concentration.

But for the main part I thought we handled the aerial threat from throw-ins and corners reasonably well.

“Not many teams come here and handle it well, and some teams cave in but we didn’t do that.”

After withstanding ten minutes of incessant Stoke pressure just after the restart, with David Edgar and Ryan Taylor clearing off the line from Glenn Whelan and Faye respectively, the tide gradually turned.

And Newcastle, who had gone close when Carroll headed inches past the post from a Taylor delivery, finally got the breakthrough they craved.

It arrived, ironically, from the sort of long throw that the Britannia Stadium has worshipped this season.

Taylor, who grew in confidence as the game developed as an attacking wing-back, arrowed his throw into the box.

It was cleared by Faye only as far as Duff.

The Irishman’s quick return into the area was met perfectly by Carroll.

His header looped over Thomas Sorensen – the former Sunderland keeper who saved penalties from Shearer in 2000 and 2003 – and nestled in the corner.

With six matches remaining, and two points separating them from fourth bottom Sunderland, a victory for Newcastle would have been timely at this stage of the season.

But the fact that Sam Allardyce was sacked after a goalless draw in the FA Cup tie at the Britannia Stadium in January last year means perhaps now is the time for Newcastle fans to be grateful for any small steps.

This was, undoubtedly, one of those.

What it may lead to remains to be seen, although for now there is at least rising hope that survival can still be achieved.