HE WAS back last Saturday, scoring (naturally) and inspiring his team to a deserved and much-needed victory against Southampton, the club where one of the most distinguished careers of the past 30 years began in 1988.

Amid the plaudits for his latest return after injury, Alan Shearer has been insistent that he will not change his plan to hang up the Newcastle United No 9 shirt at the end of the season. He also admitted, somewhat ruefully, that he will not surpass Jackie Milburn as the most prolific goalscorer in the history of the club, which must be disappointing for a man with a fine appreciation of what it means to be the Newcastle centre forward. Pity the poor player who has to take Shearer’s place next season.

At Manchester United, they pay special attention to the man who dons the No 7 shirt of Best, Robson, Cantona and Beckham; at Goodison and Villa Park, fans are taught the names of the great centre forwards while still balancing on their parents’ knees. But nowhere in football is there such a close and longstanding association as that between Newcastle and the men who lead their attack.

Statistics suggest that Milburn was the greatest of all, although many will argue that Shearer would run him close, without ever having the good fortune to play in a trophywinning Newcastle team.

Both were born locally and had the region’s all-consuming passion for the game burnt into their psyche from an early age. They had similar attributes, too — not least an ability to turn swiftly and strike shots that combined laser accuracy with frightening power. “You ask me? I’d give anything to be able to hit a ball like you,” Stanley Matthews once told Milburn after the Newcastle player had asked the wizard of the dribble for some advice.

When Milburn’s career began, he first had to shake off comparisons with Hughie Gallacher, the dynamic Scot who was the idol of all Geordies between the wars. Gallacher was later employed as a journalist on Tyneside (a career path followed by Milburn, who covered the area for the News of the World) and when the youthful Milburn told his father that he had been chatting to the great man, the response was a blunt: “Hughie Gallacher? You’ll never be good enough to lace his boots.”

He was, though. Milburn won FA Cup winner’s medals in 1951, 1952 and 1955, scoring in two of those finals, including a spectacular double against Blackpool in 1951.

Milburn died of cancer at the age of 64 in 1988 and missed the chance of seeing Shearer wearing the black and white stripes. Doubtless he would have approved, though, and who is to say that one day Shearer’s famed one-arm-raised goal celebration will not join “Wor Jackie”, sculpted in bronze outside St James’ Park.

ALAN SHEARER

Born Newcastle, 13.8.70

Height 6ft (1.83m)

Weight 12st 6lb (79kg)

Joined Newcastle from Blackburn Rovers, £15 million, July 1996

Newcastle debut v Everton (a), 17.8.96

Newcastle career 333 (+7), 184 goals

JACKIE MILBURN

Born Ashington, 11.5.24

Height 5ft 11in (1.80m)

Weight 12st 9lb (80kg)

Joined Newcastle as junior, August 1943

Newcastle debutv Barnsley (h), 5.1.46

Newcastle career 494 games, 239 goals

• Shirt of Legends: The Story of Newcastle United’s No 9 Heroes by Paul Joannou has recently been published by Mainstream Publishing (£15.99)

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