Shearer would have had to be outperforming a certain gentleman from Nazereth to have got this lot going in the limited timeframe he had.
Never underestimate how much individual confidence and team spirit contribute to getting a result. Half this team had been slowly destroyed in both aspects way back to when Allardyce left under a cloud. New players arrived into an air of pessimism and despondency (an underlying current is just as effective in its outcome), not difficult to work out what happens next. Shearer is the only ray of hope to come along since then and, given time, I think he'll develop into a very useful manager with his own team.
Let's just wait until the end of the season, and I mean 2010, before we start throwing stones.