Alan Shearer: Newcastle Goal Machine Quiz

Answer: Lincoln City

Alan Shearer's first goal for Newcastle following his world record transfer from Blackburn was in his first game: a friendly against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank on 9th August 1996. The friendly was set up as part of Kevin Keegan's deal to bring Darren Huckerby to St. James' Park, and Shearer's debut was made in front of just 10,069 people despite the ground being full to the rafters.

The goal itself was a 33rd minute penalty in a 2-0 win.

Answer: Wimbledon

Shearer scored against Wimbledon on his home league debut in another 2-0 win on 21st August 1996 with a stunning free kick. David Batty scored the other goal.

Answer: 2nd February 1997

Newcastle were 3-1 down to a hard working Leicester side, until 3 goals in the last 16 minutes from Shearer snatched the victory and all 3 points. This would also turn out to be the only time Shearer would score more than 2 goals in a match for Newcastle, and not score a penalty.

Answer: Sheffield Wednesday

Shearer recorded the feat in Bobby Robson's first game in charge at St. James' Park in a 8-0 demolition of The Owls on 19th September 1999. Aaron Hughes, Kieron Dyer, and Gary Speed completed the scoring.

Answer: 30

Alan scored 30 goals in Europe for Newcastle: 7 in the Champions League, 20 in the UEFA Cup, 2 in the Intertoto Cup, and 1 in the now defunct Cup Winners Cup. This included 2 hat-tricks (against Bayer Leverkusen and H Sakhnin).

Answer: 1996-97

Shearer last topped the charts in 1996-97 during his first season with The Magpies. He scored 25 league goals that season. The previous Newcastle striker to top the charts had been Andy Cole in 1993-94, who scored an amazing 34 times, a Premier League record which Shearer matched the following year in 1994-95 while playing for Blackburn Rovers.

Shearer was then top scorer again in 1995-96 before his move to Tyneside.

Answer: 10

Alan was top scorer in all 10 of his seasons at St. James' Park, which is made all the more amazing considering 2 of those seasons were almost completely lost due to injury. Shearer shared top spot with John Barnes in 1997/98 in one of those seasons. In 2000/01, he shared top spot with Carl Cort and Nolberto Solano, in the other the two 'lost' seasons on Tyneside.

Answer: 206

Shearer broke Jackie Milburn's long standing club record of 200 goals against Portsmouth on 4th February 2006. In his time at Newcastle, Shearer scored 148 League goals, 21 FA Cup goals, 7 League Cup goals, and 30 European goals.

Answer: Sunderland

Fittingly perhaps, on 17th April 2006, Shearer scored his final competitive goal in the backyard of local rivals Sunderland, with Newcastle recording a magnificent 4-1 win at the Stadium of Light. That was Alan's first and only goal at the ground.

Answer: Celtic

On 11th May 2006, Alan Shearer finally hung up his playing boots. Despite missing the remainder of the 2005/2006 season due to an injury picked up at Sunderland, Alan came off the bench to score a last minute penalty in his testimonial match at St. James Park.

In celebration of his extraordinary career and a decade wearing the famous No 9 shirt, and thanks to that Shearer penalty, Newcastle won the match 3-2 beating a Celtic XI. Having never won a trophy whilst at The Magpies, Shearer was asked whether he ever regretted rejecting Manchester United by moving to Newcastle.

In true Shearer-style he said: "No, I lived the dream!"