ON the same day a statue of Alan Shearer was unveiled at St James’ Park, across the city Rafael Benitez admitted he would love to become a Newcastle United legend himself.

Benitez paid tribute to Shearer after supporters gathered along with former Magpies players Kevin Keegan, Terry McDermott and Bob Moncur at the Tom Maley designed statue at the South West Corner of the stadium.

Shearer scored a record 206 goals during a decade playing for his hometown club and the Newcastle boss thinks the recognition was deserved after it was funded by former chairman Freddy Shepherd.

Benitez is still loved at Liverpool having guided them to numerous trophy successes including the Champions League in 2005 and he would love to be held in such regard on Tyneside.

The Spaniard has started well enough and supporters have instantly warmed to his ways and that will only grow should Newcastle go up this season.

Benitez said: "What I said about Alan Shearer was that I would like to see my players scoring as many goals as him.

"You want to do well and be remembered as an important figure in the history of the club. In this case, it is very simple - to get promoted.

"If we are promoted, everybody will say 'fantastic'. And after, to achieve something more. It doesn't matter the team that you coach, you want to do these things.

"When you are competitive and have a winning mentality, you want to win. But, because I have been in so many clubs now, when you have the feeling, or something back from the fans, you want to do even more.

"That is the situation I had in Liverpool and I have it here. I would like to do really well because it is my nature, but also because the fans are so good. I want to give them something back."

Newcastle have climbed into the top two ahead of tonight’s trip to Queens Park Rangers and he wants his players to stay there until May – and he enjoys putting that pressure on himself and the team.

He said: "When I was 13 years old I started playing for the Real Madrid academy. To finish second was nothing. You had to finish first, first, first every year. After I was a coach for ten years. It was 20 years growing with this mentality that you have to win first.”

Newcastle have a couple of slight injury problems ahead of the Loftus Road game, with Yoan Gouffran feeling pain in his hip and Jack Colback has muscle tightness after the victory at Derby.

Benitez will make a couple of changes anyway to freshen his team up but he is convinced he has the options available to extend the five-match winning run.

Benitez said: “What I have seen after winning some games in a row is that everyone thinks the job is done, but it certainly is not done. We have to keep sending the right message and the message is we have done nothing.

“We need to keep working hard and keep focused for every game. We know that you can lose at any time. The other day I watched Aston Villa, they were losing, winning and then they drew.

“Everything can change in one minute. The Championship is so difficult and you have to be sure you keep your players on their toes until the end of the season.”

Aleksandar Mitrovic is yet to make an appearance on the pitch this season after serving a suspension at the start of the campaign. The arrival of Daryl Murphy from Ipswich has also increased the competition for the lone striker role which Dwight Gayle currently occupies.

Benitez said: “We were disappointed to lose Mitrovic at the start of the season but he has trained well. He is training well, we have good competition, Murphy is training well, Gayle is doing well, Ayoze Perez was doing well as a striker.

“I am pleased for me to have this competition and for them they have to realise it is a long season so they have to carry on training hard, pushing to put me in a difficult position.

“All of them are ready to play. Ayoze was doing well and I didn’t play him so he is desperate to play, Murphy is desperate to play. That is really positive. Gayle will expect to play too because he is scoring goals.

“All of them expect to play every game. They have to realise we want to be at the top of the table at the end of the season, so we have to manage the squad until the end of the season.

Newcastle: Sels; Anita, Mbemba, Lascelles, Dummett; Shelvey, Hayden; Ritchie, Diame, Yedlin; Gayle.