ALAN Shearer is prepared to start Monday’s vital game against Portsmouth playing three strikers – a formation that almost grabbed the Magpies a point at White Hart Lane at the weekend.

By the time Newcastle lineup against Paul Hart’s side on Monday, they could be seven points adrift of safety.

Even if results go in their favour over the weekend, Shearer is expected to take an adventurous approach as he bids to end their eight-game winless run.

After tweaking tactics during the first half of last Sunday’s encounter with Tottenham, the Newcastle manager threw caution to the wind in a final 30 minute spell that saw Obafemi Martins, Mark Viduka and Michael Owen thrive in a three-pronged strike force.

The approach clearly rattled the Spurs back four and assistant manager Iain Dowie has revealed that employing an attacking 4-3-3 line-up from the off is under serious consideration as the Newcastle coaching staff plot to secure Shearer’s first victory since taking charge at St James’ Park.

“Me and Alan are discussing it,” admitted Dowie.

“It is a system that we’ve talked about – we do believe that we’ve got powerful players up front who can make a difference.

“We’d need to do some work in wide areas to make it work.

We’ll do some work on it in midweek – it is a consideration but it’s up to Alan to determine which way we go.’’ The pace of Martins was key to the turnaround in Newcastle’s fortunes at Spurs and Dowie was delighted to note the Nigeria striker’s willingness to play despite carrying a painful groin injury that is likely to require treatment at the end of the season.

“I’ve always said that Oba is a very important player for us,’’ he said. “He’s enormously important. The display when he came onto the pitch showed that he’s quite prepared to play through the pain barrier and that’s magnificent for everyone.

“I thought he did brilliantly when he came on. He was a threat, he did what he’s good at, he threatened in behind and had two or three excellent opportunities. On another day they go in. We couldn’t have played him from the start – we couldn’t effect that. But we’ve got him back in there now and he’ll have a proper week of preparation behind him. He’ll get his rest as well and hopefully be raring to go by Monday night.”

Dowie has become concerned by Newcastle’s growing tendency to start matches at a low tempo that has allowed their opponents to take the initiative and leave the Magpies chasing the game.

The assistant boss confirmed that he will focus his coaching expertise on ensuring the players come flying out of the blocks against Pompey and play a simple direct approach from the outset.

“Yes, absolutely there is something that we can do about it,’’ he admitted. “We’re working on some strategies to combat that.

“We need to start at a tempo. I do think, particularly for a home game where there will be a fantastic atmosphere, we’ve got to give the Geordie faithful something to go after.

“We’re going to try and simplify it early on for the first 20 or so minutes of the game. We have mentioned it – so far we’ve not done quite enough in the first halves but hopefully we can do that against Portsmouth.

“What is encouraging is that we’re starting to finish games strongly – we had some excellent chances late in the game. It’s very important that we start like we finish.”

Shearer’s options received a boost with the news that left back Jose Enrique and midfielder Joey Barton should return to the training ground before the end of this week.