ALAN Shearer and Robbie Fowler shared the honours in the battle of the hotshots as Newcastle and Liverpool fought out a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park last night.
Shearer fired Newcastle into a 28thminute lead, pouncing for his 13th goal of the season after Les Ferdinand’s header had been tipped on to the bar by David James.
But Fowler conjured up an equaliser on the stroke of half-time with his 19th of the campaign and Liverpool survived a second-half onslaught from the Magpies to move three points clear at the top of the Premiership.
TYRONE’S GAC committee will meet as soon as possible after Christmas to determine whether Sunday’s abandoned league final will be replayed.
The game between Carrickmore and Errigal Ciaran was abandoned in injury-time because of a brawl involving up to 25 players.
Errigal were leading by three points at the time of the brawl and it is possible that they may be awarded the league title instead of a replay.
GAC secretary Frank Rodgers last night said a full investigation will take place into what he said can only be described as “a crisis for the GAA in Tyrone”.
SHEARER was beaten into third place for the European Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award.
The £15million hitman finished behind second-placed Brazilian ace Ronaldo and winner Matthias Sammer, who led Germany to the Euro ‘96 title this summer.
Shearer finished as the tournament’s top scorer and banged in 36 goals for Blackburn before his world record-breaking move to Kevin Keegan’s Magpies.
ABBEY boxing club coach Sandy Rice decided to heed the advice of the Antrim County Board last week and call off two proposed women’s boxing bouts planned for the club’s Christmas promotion at the Boom Boom Rooms in Bangor.
The sport may be active in the USA and Canada, but the Irish Amateur Boxing Association have yet to ratify guidelines.
Antrim president Billy McKee said no clear guidelines have yet been issued by IABA in Dublin. Rice, whose 13-year-old daughter Danielle was to have figured in the fistic action, said the girls who have been in training for 15 months were very disappointed at not being allowed to compete on the club show.
PIERRE Van Hooijdonk is set to find out exactly what the Celtic support think of him when the Parkhead men meet Aberdeen at Pittodrie on St Stephen’s Day.
The Dutch striker has recovered from the groin strain that led to him missing the 1-0 win over Dundee United on Saturday.
Celtic manager Tommy Burns insists he has no qualms about throwing van Hooijdonk into Thursday’s clash between the Premier Division’s second and third placed sides, despite the fact he isn’t exactly flavour of the month with the Parkhead club’s faithful.
The reason why is answered by his rather despicable comment that the offer of a four-year deal worth £7,000 a week was good enough for a homeless person but not an international striker.
GAVIN Peacock has joined first division QPR from Chelsea in a move worth around £1million.
The 29-year-old midfielder, on loan at Loftus Road for the past month, has signed a three-and-a-half year deal for an initial fee of £800,000 which will rise to £1million after a certain number of appearances.
Peacock, who started his career at Rangers before leaving for Gillingham nine years ago, was also linked with clubs in France and Spain.
