Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper has welcomed Alan Shearer's tough new rules after admitting discipline had been allowed to slide.

Shearer has introduced stringent new regulations with increased fines for offenders as he attempts to foster a recovery on and off the pitch, with midfielder Joey Barton suspended until further notice by the club for a breach of discipline.

That has apparently not gone down well with some of the players he inherited from Joe Kinnear and Kevin Keegan before him, but 34-year-old Harper, who like Shearer played under Sir Bobby Robson's regime, insists it has been a positive change.

Harper told NUFC TV: "Players respond to discipline, it's needed.

"At times in the past, it maybe wasn't what it should have been here.

"But he [Shearer] has tightened it up and players respond to it, and that can only be a good thing."