Alan Shearer's column

By Alan Shearer Newcastle striker and BBC Sport columnist

Playing Southampton in the FA Cup this weekend will bring back a lot of good memories for me.

It was hard to leave after everything Southampton had done for me

The Saints were the first club I joined, signing their schoolboy forms at the age of 14.

It was tough leaving family and friends behind, especially moving to Southampton because you couldn't exactly jump on the motorway and come back home whenever you felt like it.

But I was determined to become a professional footballer so I decided that when Southampton came calling, I would move down.

Another reason for joining the Saints was that they were renowned for bringing kids into the first team.

Having said that, I never was given any indication when I would break into their first team. In football, you never are.

I stayed in digs and I was looked after very well. Of course there were the usual rules and regulations, which I stuck to - all the time!

They were strict at the club too, but fair. It was certainly very different to what I had experienced having arrived from boys football.

Although the people at Southampton always had an arm around me and I was never alone, in another sense I was on my own.

But that helped me grow up mentally in a very short time - had I not done that then I wouldn't have achieved anything.

I played as a centre-forward as soon as I arrived at Southampton, and managed to score one or two goals in training!

It's up to us to approach the Saints game in the right way - or else we'll come unstuck

It all went really well after that, which finally resulted in manager Chris Nichol giving me my first-team debut.

I continued putting in good performances, before Blackburn came knocking.

It was a hard decision to leave the south coast after everything Southampton had done for me, but I felt it was the right decision at the time.

I was still only about 21 or 22 when the big-money move happened, but the Saints gave me a good grounding and I've got a lot to thank them for.

Looking ahead to Saturday, I think the current Southampton team will think they've got nothing to lose. It's up to us to approach the game in the right way, or else we'll come unstuck.

But it's already been a busy week for me already, with Newcastle having finalised details of my testimonial against Celtic.

I'm delighted to be facing them. They've got a similar set of supporters to ours and I'm sure they'll come down in their droves. Hopefully we'll raise over £1m for worthy causes on the night.

That's still three months away. But I hope between now and then the months drag on, because by the middle of May my career will have come to an end.