Newcastle braced for the Shearer effect

Hometown hero to be unveiled today as fourth manager in troubled season

Alan Shearer has eased his entry into football management by appointing the experienced Iain Dowie as his assistant at Newcastle United as he embarks upon the daunting task of keeping the club in the Premier League.

Dowie, who has managed Oldham, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City and Queen's Park Rangers, has been out of work since being sacked by QPR in October. He is a former team-mate of Shearer, having been at Southampton with him in the early 1990s. Also expected to be drafted into the new managerial structure at St James' Park is Paul Ferris, a friend of Shearer's who briefly played for Newcastle in 1982.

Shearer, who will initially agree to stay at the club only to the end of the season, will have just two days to prepare his new side for the visit of Chelsea on Saturday but his arrival is certain to lift morale for the relegation struggle ahead. There have already been suggestions that if his appointment is made permanent Michael Owen, who is out of contract at the end of the season, will agree a new deal.

Shearer's unveiling as manager today will be something of a coup for beleaguered owner Mike Ashley, but the former striker's second coming at the club will be in marked contrast to the heady day in July 1996 when he joined Kevin Keegan's side for £15m from Blackburn Rovers, viewed as the final piece in the jigsaw that would take Newcastle to their first league title since 1927. Now the club are in the relegation zone, two points adrift of safety with eight games to play. Shearer will be their fourth manager this season after Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Chris Hughton.

Yet Shearer, the "sheet-metal worker's son" from Tyneside, could not resist the call of home. As Jack Hickson, the 87-year-old former scout who discovered Shearer, told the Evening Chronicle: "He said he just felt he had to give what he could for Newcastle United. He just wants to do it out of love for the club. That is the point. He's passionate for the club and he wants them out of the mire."