Owen moved a step closer to getting his name among England’s all-time scorers when he netted another crucial goal during the convincing 4-0 victory over Northern Ireland on Saturday.

The Real Madrid striker might not be a regular for the Spanish giants, but he showed he has lost none of his goal-scoring instincts for the national team when he took his tally to 29 goals for England.

And with the chance of equalling Shearer, Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse who had all scored 30 goals for their country, Owen knows what it would mean for him to achieve that amazing feat this week.

Owen said: "It would be nice to break Alan Shearer's record at St James' Park. I'm friends with Alan, so I'm sure he'd be the first on the phone and it'd be great to do it in his home town too.

"Every time I score I think I see a chart of all-time leading scorers so I'm aware of it.

"I'm not too far off fourth at the moment with some terrific players behind me - but then I'm some way off the top three!!

"I'm only 25 and have plenty of years ahead of me to try to make my way up that table and of course it would be great to do that.

"The barriers for me are loss of form or injury I suppose, but hopefully I will push up there."

Owen was quick to pay tribute to Northern Ireland who provided a stern test for his side during the opening 45 minutes of the game.

And even though England went onto win the game 4-0 in the second half, Owen knows things could have been a lot different if Joe Cole had not scored so quickly after the re-start.

Owen added: "I thought they played very well in the first half. And had they held on much longer I think the fans may have got a bit nervous and that would have transmitted to the players.

"Northern Ireland played with a lot of credit in the first half and I wouldn't have fancied playing another 15/20 minutes with it still at 0-0.

"So I thought Joe's goal in particular was important. Obviously once we'd got that, they had to come out at us a bit and then you saw perhaps the difference in class between us.

"But all credit to them, they kept us out for over a half and we'd have been twitching a bit if it'd gone on much longer.

"We must have had three-quarters of possession and we were creating chances so we always knew it was going to be difficult for them to keep chasing and trying to stop us play.

"They were obviously going to tire and the first goal was always going to be important. It was good for Joe to score because it calmed us down and made us comfortable when we got the following goals."