22/03/2006  Chelsea 1 Newcastle 0
 
Dreams of Shearer ending his playing days with a Stanley Matthews-style happy ending proved unrealistic but Glenn Roeder's team simply did not have the power to match Jose Mourinho's double-chasers and they finished the game with 10 men after a harsh red card for Robbie Elliott in the last minute.

John Terry scored the only goal in the fourth minute to book the Blues into the last four along with Liverpool, West Ham and either Charlton or Middlesbrough.

Shearer will retire at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on 10 years as a Newcastle player. He will end it as the club's all-time record goalscorer, after breaking Jackie Milburn's long-standing record this season.

But he will not emulate Geordie legend Milburn by bringing the FA Cup back to Tyneside. Shearer's decade in black and white is destined to end in disappointment.

The only silverware he will have to show for one of the greatest careers in the modern era is a lone championship medal with Blackburn in 1995.

The FA Cup was his last hope. Shearer toiled away up front but was feeding on scraps as Chelsea dominated for long spells.

The Geordie hero, who now has 202 goals for the Magpies, was barely given a sniff by the excellent Terry and never tested Carlo Cudicini, in for Petr Cech.

Chelsea were on the rebound from a rare Premiership defeat at Fulham, on Sunday, and went ahead after only four minutes.

Mourinho had made seven changes to the team which started at Craven Cottage but it was his ever-present skipper Terry who made the early breakthrough from a left-wing corner.

Terry wriggled free of his marker Peter Ramage with a run to the near post, where he met Damien Duff's corner on the half-volley.

Ramage had been switched from right-back to central defence to cover for the error-prone Jean-Alain Boumsong, sent off against Liverpool on Sunday and banned from this game.

Nolberto Solano, on the post, stuck out a foot but only succeeded in helping the ball past goalkeeper Shay Given into the net.

Terry claimed it, sliding into the corner of the pitch on his knees to celebrate and it will go down as his fifth of the season.

It helped the Blues to relax. Despite their total dominance in the Premiership, Mourinho's men had come into the quarter-final on a run of only four wins in eight games.

Mourinho had held an inquest this week to keep his players on track for their league and FA Cup double.

He was concerned that complacency might wreck the dream but the early goal helped. Newcastle responded well with Scott Parker driving them on against his former club and Kieron Dyer back in the team, in the hole behind Shearer.

Lee Bowyer unleashed a drive which Cudicini could not hold and Chelsea were grateful for the awareness of Terry in defence. He beat Shearer to the rebound and bundled it behind, and Shearer's lunge for the ball only succeeded in clattering the England defender.

Solano went close from a free-kick and Shola Ameobi flashed a shot wide from long range.

Chelsea had chances to kill the tie, either side of half-time.

Two minutes before the break, Ricardo Carvalho connected with an inswinging free-kick from Frank Lampard but his defensive instincts took over and the centre-half's wayward shot looked more like a clearance.

Joe Cole jinked past Celestine Babayaro after the break but Given stood firm at his near post to push the shot behind. The corner fell kindly for Asier del Horno but the left-back, in for the suspended William Gallas, failed to control his shot and it ballooned high into the Matthew Harding Stand.

Eidur Gudjohnsen and Cole went close again and Glenn Roeder sent on Craig Moore for his Newcastle debut in a bid to bolster his creaking back-line.

Given also produced an excellent double save to deny Drogba twice. Former Rangers and Crystal Palace defender Moore has been injured since signing on a free last summer from Borussia Monchengladbach.

Moore was booked within seven minutes for handbags with Didier Drogba after a foul by Elliott on Cole.

Drogba and Ameobi were shown yellow cards but Elliott, booked in the first half, escaped without a second yellow.

Elliott kicked Cole in the back when the England midfielder was on the floor.

Referee Bennett let him off and then showed him a second yellow for an innocuous challenge on Shaun Wright-Phillips in the last minute.

Shearer's misery was completed when he was booked for arguing with the decision as his FA Cup dream died in west London.