This morning’s Sunday Sun is leading with the story of Michael Owen’s early Newcastle comeback. According to the paper, Owen’s American surgeon has given the striker a thumbs up to a March training return, looking to put the Black and White shirt on again and run out at St James Park mid-April. On Owen, Magpies manager Glenn Roeder said:

“At worst, Michael is on schedule. Potentially, he is ahead of schedule. He got a scan sent over to Dr Steadman in Colorado to have a look at.

“He looked at the scan and is absolutely delighted. The knee is in pristine condition. He gave Michael the good news over the telephone.

“But the news about the scan this week just rubber stamped how Michael feels the knee is itself in terms of stability. He feels good.

“The scan has confirmed that and will have given him great belief.”

Dermot Gallagher of Banbury in Oxfordshire takes charge of our visit to Everton today.

He last took charge of a United game on the 9th of this month at Blackburn, dismissing Stephane Henchoz as we won 3-1. Infact he has dismissed opposition players in his last 3 Newcastle games - the other 2 being Gilberto Silva and Paul Konchesky, although the latter was rescinded.

His only Everton game this season was their 2-0 home win over Sheffield United, where he awarded Everton a penalty and dismissed Claude Davis of the visitors.

Newcastle enter the game with Everton hoping to avoid a fourth defeat in their last six games in all competitions. In the last fortnight the Magpies have suffered defeat against Chelsea twice, in the Carling Cup and the Premiership, as well as defeat last Saturday to Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium. Things are only getting worse though with a trip to Goodison Park on Saturday and the visit of Manchester United also on the horizon. With Kieron Dyer and Obafemi Martins going through their best form of the season, can the Toon succeed?

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The Boxing Day blues continued for Newcastle yesterday as they fell 2-1 at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers. Kieron Dyer gave Newcastle an early lead and the Magpies were in cruise control. However Peter Ramage headed past Pavel Srnicek after 26 minutes to hand Bolton a lifeline. That mistake proved the turning point in the game as Anelka went on to score the winner early in the 2nd half denying the Toon of all 3 points.

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Rotherham’s Howard Webb is the man in the middle at the Reebok Stadium for our Boxing Day clash with Bolton Wanderers.

His only previous United game this season was our 2-0 defeat at Villa Park in August, while his only Bolton game this campaign was their 4-0 win over West Ham earlier this month.

Newcastle continue their fine run of form when they travel to Bolton Wanderers this afternoon, looking to cause an upset at the Reebok Stadium at 3pm.

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Ahead of our trip to Bolton on Boxing Day, I took the opportunity to have a look at our Boxing Day record to give us an idea of how well our lads do on the day after Christmas. The fixture list has long been unkind to Newcastle, forcing us to play away from home effectively 2 out of every 3 years, 48 out of 79 Boxing Day games being on the road, and this is the case again in 2006, meaning 5 consecutive St Stephen’s Days on the road for United fans.

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United were quick off the mark yesterday, with goals from Kieron Dyer and Obafemi Martins putting us 2 ahead within 7 minutes. Danny Murphy’s fluke goal reduced the arrears but captain Scott Parker headed home to restore the 2-goal cushion which we held to the end for an impressive victory against a very poor Tottenham side.

What do you think about the match? Can we continue our good form over a difficult looking Christmas period? Who stood out yesterday? Should I stick money on Martins to be the Premiership’s top scorer? Write in and have your say.

Alan Wiley of Burntwood in Staffordshire is the man who will take charge of our Premiership meeting with Spurs at St James’ Park this afternoon.

His only United game this season was our 2-1 loss to Bolton in October, with our goal coming from a penalty awarded by Wiley’s assistant Glenn Turner (who incidentally will assist him again today). He has yet to referee Spurs this season.

The last time Wiley refereed this fixture was 3 years ago, when 2 Laurent Robert stunners and 2 Alan Shearer goals saw us to a 4-0 win. The other time, however, we lost 2-0 back in October 2001 to a Gary Speed own goal and a Gustavo Poyet header.

The remainder of the refereeing appointments for the festive period are as follows:
Bolton vs NUFC - Howard Webb
Everton vs NUFC - Dermot Gallagher
NUFC vs Man Utd - Phil Dowd
Birmingham vs NUFC - Rob Styles

Merry Christmas from me, and I’ll be back on Boxing Day for a look at Mr Webb.

On Saturday, we’re visited by the club that, in some people’s eyes, have become our rivals. Arguably, we’re the clubs with the fiercest ambitions to break into the elite group, and who have the best chances of making the transition. However, we both remain the nearly men.

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Newcastle’s Carling Cup venture came to an abrupt end on Wednesday evening, as League Champions Chelsea overcame the Magpies on a bitterly cold night at St James’ Park. Didier Drogba’s solitary goal left the supporters dawdling home in disappointment, reminiscent of the scenes that occurred only a week ago. The Ivorian hitman’s thunderous strike was all that separated the two teams after 90 minutes.

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St Helens official Chris Foy is at St James’ Park tonight for our Carling Cup Quarter Final against Chelsea.

Foy’s last visit to St James’ Park was for our 2-1 defeat to Fulham in September. Foy famously dismissed Chelsea’s Arjen Robben at Sunderland last season.

We face the Champions on Wednesday, in the quarter-final of the Carling Cup, with some reasons to be cheerful. Firstly, there is the likely absence through injury of John Terry. It’s been reported that he hasn’t travelled with the rest of the squad, and so it seems that we’ll be facing the same defence that shipped two goals against Everton on Sunday – Hilario, Geremi, Boulahrouz, Carvalho and Cole. That’s a unit to be respected, but not feared.

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Obafemi Martins continued his good run of form with two goals to defeat a resilient Watford at St James’ Park on Saturday. After taking some time to settle into the Premiership, Oba has started to really look the part and both his finishes were out of the top drawer.

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Few who cared to think about it would imagine that there would be an eighteenth part to this series. Newcastle were at home. Newcastle were facing the bottom side in the Premiership. Newcastle were facing a side that had not scored in nearly a month. Newcastle were facing Watford. (more…)