Newcastle entertain Birmingham City at St James Park this evening in an FA Cup replay, live on BBC1.

MATCH BUILD UP:

Newcastle (from): Given, Harper, Solano, Edgar, Taylor, Ramage, Huntington, Butt, Milner, Pattison, Troisi, Gate, Martins, Dyer, Sibierski, Luque, Carroll, LuaLua.

Birmingham (from): To follow…

Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder:

“We should have won that first match at St. Andrews and I want our players to make sure we do not miss out on a second opportunity tonight.

“But Birmingham are favourites to bounce back into the Premiership at the end of this season and they will make it tough for us tonight just like they did in the first game.

“We will be playing our 38th game tonight and this season has been like a whirlwind. In fact If someone asked me the date I wouldn’t have a clue.

“But it has been like this for us since we reported back for training on June 28 and we would still rather have things this way than not being involved the way we were in the Carling Cup and the way we still are in the FA Cup and Europe.”

Birmingham boss Steve Bruce:

“I’ll be playing as strong a side as I possibly can.”

“We didn’t want last weekend’s game (Leeds) called off but it’s given everybody a break and we’re fresh and raring to go.

“We’ve still got one or two like Bendtner and Kelly who won’t make it plus obviously Dunn and Forssell, but otherwise I have a fully fit squad to choose from.

“We’ll go and try and enjoy it and take on Newcastle.

“I hope it’s as good a cup-tie as the last one which I thought was the best tie of the round.

“It’s live on the BBC which will give it an extra edge.

“Let’s go and have a crack at it and hopefully we can put on a show and make it a really good cup-tie.”

PREDICTIONS:

Shay Given

Nolberto Solano
Steven Taylor
Peter Ramage
Paul Huntington

James Milner
Nicky Butt
Matty Pattison

Obafemi Martins
Antoine Sibierski
Kieron Dyer

With Martins on form, I really can see a few goals from him tonight. The team is playing with passion and the luck is really going their way at the minute. I can see Newcastle safely into Round four tonight. Newcastle 4-0 Birmingham.

Peter Walton, 47 from Northamptonshire, will be the unfamiliar face in the middle at St James’ Park tonight as we take on Birmingham City in the FA Cup Third Round Replay. Walton replaces St Helens-based referee Chris Foy, who picked up an injury which has forced him out of both this game and last Saturday’s Premiership game between Blackburn and Arsenal.

Walton has only done 1 Newcastle game in the history of time, and that was our 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic at The Valley in October 2004, when he cautioned one player from each side. This season in the Premiership he became famous for awarding a penalty to Sheffield United, and having to reverse the decision on the advice of his assistant referee Andy Halliday, who correctly told him the ball had come off the knee of the defender.