GRAEME Souness heaped praise on young striker Jonathan Stead after he scored his second goal in two appearances to earn Rovers a point against Newcastle United.

And after Stead had scored the 85th minute equaliser, the manager likened his goal to the kind that former Rovers hero Alan Shearer has scored over the years.

"He's started very well for us hasn't he?" said Souness on Radio Rovers after the game.

"That tonight was a great finish, a proper striker's finish.

"A great ball by Gally, and prior to that a great pass by Markus Babbel.

"And dare I say it, when the ball was squared it was like Alan Shearer, that ball was going into the back of the net, whether he got the man or the ball or both, he met it with aggression and it was destined for the back of the net.

"I thought he and Andy Cole worked well tonight.

Rovers dominated the first half and were unlucky not to go in at the end of the first forty-five in front, and were caught just after the break when Bellamy pounced, but Rovers roared back, and were full value for the point.

"I thought in the first half we were very unlucky not to have scored, and to go in at 0-0 we knew at half-time that Bobby would fire them up for the second half.

"And we gave away a dodgy goal, but what's new there. But we battled back, which is all credit to the players.

"I want to take the pluses, we've played against a team that is fourth in the league, we've played against a team that is full of good players, we went a goal behind, but we kept going right to the end.

"The supporters were great, I want to thank them, they'll have gone home tonight feeling that their team has given everything tonight," added the Rovers manager.

Tomorrow's Rovers World will bring you all the highlights from this evening's exiting match, and all the post match reaction.