ALAN Shearer was rewarded for his outstanding contribution to the Premiership prior to the Saturday January 20 clash against Sheffield Wednesday.

And less than 30 minutes into the game he proved how invaluable he is to Rovers when he notched goal number 28 of the season to set Ray Harford's men on the road to their ninth home win on the trot.

Until that moment it was a closely-fought encounter with Wednesday's lone striker David Hirst twice going close in the opening minutes.

However, as the visitors' defence 'slept' in the 28th minute, Shearer pounced to lash home Stuart Ripley's inviting low cross.

The Owls rear guard was again ripped open three minutes later when Lars Bohinen lit up the grey sky with a superb piece of individual skill.

Henning Berg carved open the opportunity for his fellow Norwegian and as he raced through unchallenged, a clever 'step over' totally bamboozled keeper Chris Woods.

That effectively sealed the points for Rovers and though Wednesday threatened after the break, Kevin Gallacher rounded off a man of the match performance when he cooly chipped over the advancing Woods with six minutes to go to make it 3-0.

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