COLIN Calderwood's personal nightmare came to an end after just 20 minutes of trying but failing to mark Alan Shearer, pictured right scoring his third goal.

And for that small mercy the Spurs and Scotland central defender must be truly thankful.

But Calderwood - Colin Hendry's international room-mate - faces a few more sleepless nights before June 15 when his own personal nightmare is set to return.

For, despite the Tottenham fans jumping on the bandwagon to champion their own hero Teddy Sheringham by taunting Shearer about his lack of goals for England, you can bet that Calderwood was cringing.

Come Euro 96, Shearer will be wearing the white shirt of England and going for Scotland's jugular at Wembley.

The Tottenham defender was "lucky" at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

He found an early escape route from this eventful thriller. But he had already handed Blackburn Rovers the lead by conceding a penalty before injury brought premature relief to his afternoon's misery.

And there will be no hiding place at Wembley in June.

Calderwood certainly wouldn't be thanked by his partner Stuart Nethercott, or substitute Jason Cundy, for leaving them to try to cope with the unenviable task of shackling Shearer.

It was mission impossible.

"You'll never score for England," bleated the Tottenham fans.

But the Rovers striker produced the perfect answer with a sublime hat-trick to clinch a dramatic but deserved victory.

He showed he is still head and shoulders above any of his rivals for that number nine shirt, as Calderwood - and Scotland - will doubtless discover this summer.

Long before his stoppage-time winner, which added yet another hat-trick to his collection of classics, Shearer had given Nethercott a far more painful headache than the one he incurred from an early aerial clash, inspiring Rovers to the luxury of a 2-0 lead.

Somehow Spurs hauled the scoreline back to 2-2 and looked as though they might even go on to win a see-saw thriller.

But Shearer ensured that Rovers weren't kicking themselves all the way back up the motorway, as the SAS teamed up again for the final few minutes and that was all it needed.

Late substitute Chris Sutton provided the service and Shearer did a fair impression of a raging bull as he stormed through Spurs' flimsy defensive ranks to smash a superb winner.

What is it about the London air that Rovers find so refreshing?

Their tally of away points may be meagre but they are actually unbeaten in the capital!

QPR and now Spurs have provided away-day successes, Arsenal, West Ham and Wimbledon a point apiece. Manager Ray Harford, despite his long list of absentees, had a game plan that worked a treat for most of the match and, ultimately, produced the win Rovers' overall performance deserved.

He made two changes in personnel from the side which started against Leeds in midweek, Graham Fenton keeping his place at the expense of Matty Holmes and Mike Newell returning to partner Shearer.

That also meant a switch to the left flank for Kevin Gallacher and it signalled Rovers' attacking intentions, with four forwards on the field.

The way they went at Spurs from the start, continuing the positive attitude and conviction they had shown at Maine Road two weeks earlier, underlined a growing feeling of confidence.

And the two central midfield men did a splendid job to anchor it all together, particularly Nicky Marker who had an excellent game alongside the busy Billy McKinlay.

Yet, even though Rovers led 2-0 at the interval and could easily have had more goals as they gave the Spurs central defenders a rare chasing, the quality of the home team's two strikers ensured the game was in the balance right to the very end.

In the final reckoning, the bottom line was the class of two men at opposite ends of the field.

Shearer's stunning finishing power needs no elaboration but Rovers also owed a debt to Tim Flowers, who pulled off three breath-taking saves.

For Spurs still conjured up a few half-decent chances even though they were second best for long periods.

The first half saw Spurs in almost complete disarray especially after Calderwood fouled Shearer, put through by Mike Newell. The striker picked himself up to hit the penalty past Ian Walker's right hand.

Nethercott looked as if he didn't know what day it was, while Cundy's response to his own ragged contribution was a despicable second half foul on Newell.

Gallacher and Hendry had great chances to increase Rovers' lead before Shearer did. Taking another clever flick from Newell, he raced past Nethercott like the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup before hammering a low right-foot shot past the helpless Walker.

It could have been worse for Spurs when Cundy's back pass bobbled under Walker's foot and the keeper only just got back to his line in time to hack it clear. Just before half time, Sheringham's ability to find space in the box set up a chance for Fox and the door seemed to open for Spurs. But Flowers immediately slammed it shut with a stunning top left-hand corner save from a scorching volley.

The first 15 minutes of the second half followed what now seemed a familiar pattern.

Rovers were in charge, a third goal looked imminent and Spurs were being booed by their own fans!

When managers say goals change games, they mean what happened next.

Everyone was drawn to the near post by Fox's corner and Sheringham - again - ghosted into a bit of space to rifle it home.

Suddenly inspired, Spurs piled forward and Flowers made great saves from Chris Armstrong and David Howells. But they weren't to be denied.

A ball into the centre of the penalty area, Armstrong took it on his chest and gave Flowers no chance with a thumping right-footer, superbly-taken.

There was, however, one last twist as Sutton played an instinctive first-time ball through the middle and his instincts were spot on.

Shearer raced through the gap, steadied himself as the ball bounced before putting another piledriver into Walker's net.

The Rovers fans went into a frenzy of excitement.

It was all too much for the man on the White Hart Lane tannoy who sarcastically announced the goal time as 92 minutes 30 seconds.

Touchy or what!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.