JUST over five years ago, Alan Shearer was part of the Newcastle team denied all three points at Liverpool after Michael Owen’s secondhalf equaliser cancelled out Shola Ameobi’s opening strike.

Liverpool went on to pip the Magpies to a Champions League spot after the sides finished the season in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Liverpool’s subsequent push for European and League honours has been as spectacular as Newcastle’s fall from grace.

During his Newcastle playing career, Shearer never secured victory at Anfield and as he plotted to secure something from Rafa Benitez titlechasers this weekend, the Magpies boss reflected on the widening gulf between the two sides.

“Everyone can see it – they’re going for the league and we’re fighting off relegation,” said the manager.

“There’s been a huge change in the two teams’ fortunes over the past however many years. It wasn’t too long ago that Newcastle were challenging.

There’s been a huge change downward for Newcastle and upward for Liverpool, they keep improving and getting stronger.”

Shearer was part of the crowd that witnessed Newcastle’s 5-1 capitulation at St James’ Park last December, when Steven Gerrard’s brace set up an easy victory for Liverpool that brutally exposed Newcastle’s shortcomings.

“It wasn’t pretty, was it? Maybe it was a turning point in the season, or a pointer for how the season was about to go. For every bit Liverpool were brilliant that day, Newcastle were equally poor,” said the manager.

The form of Owen and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres offers more recent evidence to explain why tomorrow’s opponenets are at opposite ends of the table.

While Newcastle’s number ten has failed to find the back of the net in his last 14 games, Torres has netted eight times during the same period. And the Spain international shares many of the attributes that made the Newcastle boss such a feared marksman.

“He is a top player – power, pace, work-rate but, more importantly, goals. He is a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals. So our defenders will know on Sunday afternoon that they have been in a game. Have we got enough to keep him quiet? I believe so,” said Shearer, who highlighted Sebastien Bassong’s importance in keeping Liverpool’s Spanish ace quiet.

“Probably our best player since I came here has been Bassong. I have been very impressed; good pace, good in the air, can use the ball, and can read the game.”