Cats striker's mentor - United legend Shearer; Cats striker hails 'Sir Alan'.

Byline: Mark Douglas 

SUNDERLAND forward Darren Bent has been taking striking lessons from "Sir Alan" Shearer as he looks to continue his red-hot scoring run.

The pair met at a restaurant opening on Tuesday night and Newcastle's record goalscorer dished out advice to the Sunderland hit-man, currently at the top of the Premier League scoring charts with seven goals since his summer move to Wearside. Bent blogged about the words of encouragement on his Twitter page and paid tribute to Shearer, who he referred to as 'Sir Alan' for his goalscoring exploits during a long and illustrious career.

"The restaurant opening was cool. Alan Shearer gave me some nice words which was even better," he wrote.

"When someone has scored 350+ goals and gives you advice you make sure you listen - and I did."

His obvious respect for Shearer is the latest example of Bent's willingness to integrate into North East life since moving to Sunderland - a trait which has quickly endeared him to the club's supporters.

While Shearer may not be a favourite among Black Cats fans, his goalscoring prowess makes him an ideal man to give advice to Bent - a man hoping to follow in his footsteps into the England side.

Bent's form has taken him to the verge of an England recall, but the forward was not at Wembley for the final World Cup qualifier against Belarus last night.

Fabio Capello had invited every one of the 55 players he had called up for international duty to attend the match as a 'thank you' for their efforts, but Sunderland's training schedule meant he had to miss out.

Bent remains an outside shot for a place in the World Cup squad, but his run of goals means he will be difficult to ignore in the run-up to the tournament - and the striker will be hoping for a chance to impress when England take on Brazil in Qatar on November 14. Meanwhile, Black Cats boss Steve Bruce has hailed Jordan Henderson's rapid progress after the club handed the Academy graduate a new four-year deal. The 19-year-old is tied to the club until 2013 after penning the new deal, and Bruce believes that the sky is the limit for the young midfielder. Bruce said: "I was impressed with Jordan as soon as I arrived at the club. He is a great talent with a fantastic attitude and we have high hopes for him." Henderson made his debut at Chelsea in November last year, but a loan move to Coventry City helped spark a meteoric rise. He returned after playing 13 games for the Sky Blues and immediately impressed the Black Cats manager, who turned down several approaches to take him on loan over the summer.

It is a measure of how highly Bruce rates Henderson that he allowed Teemu Tainio and Dean Whitehead to depart the club during the summer transfer window - leaving the homegrown youngster as one of his few recognised midfield options. Bruce looks set to bolster his squad with the signing of Bolo Zenden on a short-term deal, however. He added: "I have been a bit concerned about midfield because we have left ourselves a little bit short of numbers, and we know Lee Cattermole and Lorik Cana will pick up yellow cards because of their style of play. "So when Bolo rang me to ask if he could train with us, I said 'why not'. He has been here a week now and he has impressed us all, not least with his fitness levels considering he is not with a club at the moment. He scored three times in a practice match this week and his team won 4-3, so if ever he wanted to make a statement, that was it!" Two other Sunderland players are close to committing their long-term futures to the club.

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