Shearer ready to celebrate in Europe

NEWCASTLE skipper Alan Shearer celebrated his 32nd birthday in Bosnia yesterday but was happy to delay the party for another 24 hours.

Shearer and his team-mates prepared for tonight’s vital Champions League qualifier with NK Zeljeznicar in Sarajevo determined not to let slip the chance of a money-spinning foray into the big time.

“I could have thought of better ways to spend my birthday,” he said with a smile. “But this is what we’ve prepared for in pre-season.

“We’ve known about this date for a good two or three months now so we’ve worked for this and this is what all the hard work is for now.

“It would be absolutely criminal now for us to get this far and to throw it away at the final hurdle to get into the Champions League.

“We worked our socks off last year to get into this great position, and it really would be criminal both for the individuals, the team and for this football club because we know how important it is, not only for the football club financially, but for us as players.”

Shearer is yet to play for his home-town club in the biggest of European competitions after missing their only Champions League campaign in 1997 with a horrendous ankle injury which robbed him of half that season.

Indeed, he has only the memories of a single season in the competition with Blackburn in 1995-96, and it is for that reason that he is refusing to count his chickens as he eyes a second chance.

“I hoped and thought it would come before this, but we’ve got two games to play before we get into the league and it’s up to us now,” he said.

“We’ve got ourselves this far, now we have to get over the final hurdle and do something in these two games to get through.

“But I can’t talk about getting into the Champions League situations because we’re still in the play-offs. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the team we’re playing by already talking about how far we can go.

“We finished fourth, which we’re all very proud about, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t class it as Champions League as yet.”

United will be without influential duo Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert through injury, and the pair have been joined on the sidelines for tonight’s game at the Olympski Kosevo Stadium, Zeljeznicar’s own Grbavica Stadium did not meet UEFA requirements, by Gary Speed and Carl Cort.