Newcastle Shirt Newcastle return to action in the Premiership on Saturday Afternoon following the International break. The past few weeks haven’t been great for the Magpies losing 3 of the last 5 including a dismal 2-0 defeat at the Valley against struggling Charlton Athletic and being thrown out of the UEFA Cup by AZ Alkamaar.

The Magpies only victory in the past 5 games came at St James Park in the first leg against AZ when the Magpies really turned on the style. Glenn Roeder will be hoping Newcastle can turn on similar style again when Man City come to town at 3pm.


» Squads

Newcastle (from): Given, Harper, Solano, Carr, Babayaro, Edgar, Taylor, Bramble, Onyewu, Moore, Ramage, Huntington, Butt, Parker, Milner, Duff, Emre, N’Zogbia, Pattison, Troisi, Martins, Dyer, Sibierski, Luque, Carroll, LuaLua.

Man City (from): Isaksson, Weaver, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Ball, Trabelsi, Barton, Ireland, Beasley, Samaras, Corradi, Sun Jihai, Dabo, Vassell, Hamann, Dickov, Sturridge, Mpenza, Miller.


» Injuries and Suspensions

Nicky Butt returns from his one-match suspension while Stephen Carr (groin), Babayaro (hamstring) and Peter Ramage (hamstring) all return to the squad leaving Glenn Roeder with a near full squad to choose from with Owen, Ameobi and youngster Tim Krul the only players left on the treatment table.

For Man City, Micah Richards was stretchered off mid-week in Spain while playing for England in their Euro2008 qualifying match against Andorra and does not make the squad. Apart from that, there are no new injury worries for Stuart Pearce and he is expected to name a near-unchanged side from that of their last Premiership tie.


» Predicted Lineup

Shay Given

Nolberto Solano
Oguchi Onyewu
Steven Taylor
Celestine Babayaro

James Milner
Emre
Scott Parker
Charles N’Zogbia

Obafemi Martins
Kieron Dyer


» Prediction

I really want Newcastle to show up in this game and go for the necks of Man City and I really wish I could sit here and predict a 4-0 victory. However, it probably won’t go that way. Games these days that Newcastle are expected to win, they lose so I’m going to say 2-1 City but I hope I’m proved wrong.