Newcastle United boss Alan Shearer was delighted with Andy Carroll's goal scoring performance at Stoke City.

"Just because he's a local lad, I don't think there's any extra pressure on him to succeed," insisted interim manager Shearer.

"We'll help him as much as we can in the time that we're here, but he wants to learn, to improve, and we know that from the short space of time we've had with him.

"We'll try and help him and keep all the pressure off him as much as we can - there's enough pressure on the players anyway.

"But I'm sure he won't get carried away, we won't allow him to get carried away.

"We've worked with him, although how much individual work he has had over the last 18 months, I'm not quite sure.

"But he needs that, he needs coaching, and to put the effort in by working hard in training which will give him his rewards in games like this one.

"But he also needs matches because he only played his first full game for us (in the reserves) on Monday for a couple of months."

Shearer at least acknowledges Carroll has now "put himself in a fantastic position" with regard to winning a more permanent place.

"You ask a substitute to go and make an impact, and he did that," said Shearer.

"If you get balls into the box to him then he is likely to do that as he is a big, strong presence.

"The more people can give me problems regarding team selection then the better it will be for everyone, and more importantly, for the football club."