Shearer said of the biggest game of his short managerial career;

"It's bigger than a cup final, a hell of a lot bigger than a cup final.

The question has been asked on four or five occasions over the last four or five games, 'Is this the biggest game of your career?', and I keep answering, 'Yes, because it's the next one'.

But we know what's at stake, we know what's riding on it and I am pretty confident we can go there and give our great fans something to shout about, I really am.

I am totally convinced we will get out of it, yes, and I think more importantly, so are my players.

I asked them to forget last weekend's result, whether we thought we played well or whether we thought we played badly or had good decisions, bad decisions.

That's gone, we can't change that. What we can change is this weekend and I believe if we go there and win, it will be a very, very good day for us."

He added;

"We all know the implications. I know, the players know, people around the city know what it means for this football club in to be in the Premier League.

Massive; you are talking about the staff you don't know at this football club - tea ladies - who could lose their jobs.

We're all aware of the stakes. I won't have to motivate the players for this game. We've got one last throw of the dice."

O'Neill said ahead of the game;

"I certainly don't think we will be laying down our arms. We will be going to try and win the game.

We have the possibility of finishing fifth and getting more points than last season and those are the rewards we want to try and claim.

Alan Shearer wouldn't expect any favours from us. We are playing professional football and we will be trying to win."

MATCH PREVIEW/STATS/THREAD HERE

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