GLENN ROEDER feels Alan Shearer's ten-year service to Newcastle United is worthy of being rewarded with silverware but, as the Magpies head to Chelsea for an FA Cup quarter-final tonight, the talismanic skipper maintains glory for the club is far more important.

Shearer will retire at the end of the season and failure to overcome the Blues at Stamford Bridge will mean Newcastle's all-time leading goalscorer will have failed to claim a winner's medal during a decade at St James' Park.

It would be a travesty if that, as most observers expect, proves to be the case but the 35-year-old insists he is only dreaming of helping the club he has supported all of his life end a 37-year wait for honours.

"People keep saying this season's FA Cup is my last chance of winning silverware for Newcastle but forget about that - it doesn't mean anything to me personally," said Shearer. "I won't feel any different when I'm getting ready for this game.

"It's the club's last chance of silverware this year - not mine individually. It's a team game.

"I've firmly believed in that team ethic throughout my career. That's the way you've got to think.

"You never win any major honour for being an individual in our sport, you've got to do as well as you can individually but it's the team performance that really matters."

Apart from shooting Blackburn to the Premiership title in 1995, Shearer's illustrious career has failed to be rewarded with more gongs.

And many believe Newcastle's hopes of winning the FA Cup this season ended as soon as the last eight draw was made.

Had Shearer moved to Manchester United from Rovers instead of heading to hometown Newcastle in 1996 then things would have been a little different, although he claims to have no regrets.

"Sometimes you don't always get what you deserve. I'm not saying I deserve anything. You've just got to work hard and then see what you get out of it and we'll see what happens at Stamford Bridge," said Shearer.

"This FA Cup is special to people in the North-East. It's a big competition for obvious reasons and the fans have a great affinity with it.

"We've got to go to Chelsea, give it a right good go and see what happens.

"It will be tough but who knows - there haven't been too many shocks in the FA Cup this season and if we were to win there it would be regarded as a shock.

"We can take heart from last season's FA Cup win at St James' when no one expected us to win. It's away this time so why not. Funny things happen in football. Every player will have to perform to their maximum for us to still be in the Cup on Thursday morning."

Roeder, assisted by the revered Newcastle striker during his time as caretaker boss, is one of those to feel Shearer's career deserves to have been rewarded with more honours.

Ideally, with a permanent manager unlikely to be appointed until the summer, Roeder would like the Tynesiders to edge out Chelsea, head to the Millennium Stadium and make sure Shearer's swan-song season ends on the most fitting of high notes.

And if the former England captain was to get his hands on the famous old trophy then Roeder feels the 2006 FA Cup final could go down in history alongside the great 1953 final between Blackpool and Bolton, which has subsequently been hailed as the great Stanley Matthews final.

"We've got the potential for Alan Shearer to play in a cup final and I'm sure it would rank along with the Matthews final if he did," said Roeder, who was part of the last Newcastle team that won at Chelsea in 1986-87.

"If he wasn't to make it, knowing him it would be a huge disappointment but that would be counterbalanced by playing in front of his own people for ten years and giving them so much enjoyment.

"Beating Jackie Milburn's record, of 200 goals, is a personal trophy for him and now it's sunk in he's so proud of his achievement.

"Would he prefer to win medals or give the Geordie nation happiness for ten years? I think he would rather the latter and go down in the club's history books as the one and only Alan Shearer and giving the fans all that happiness."

After the high of going six games unbeaten since Graeme Souness' departure, defeats to Liverpool and Manchester United have muddied the water a little in the last week or so.

Shearer admits confidence has taken a dip following the two reversals but remains optimistic the place to bounce back is against the Premiership's runaway leaders.

"We'll get a win from somewhere, why not this game?" he said. "It's a shame these defeats came immediately before the Cup game because we've lost a little bit of momentum due to the two defeats.

"But that's what happens in football and you see it time and time again when you go along and you're flying and something comes along and hits you and you're knocked out of your stride.

"We've had two poor results. Now it's up to us the make sure it's not three.