Blackburn Shirt Newcastle Shirt Unbeaten in 7 games in all competitions is quite impressive for a team that are said to be on the verge of crisis as they edge closer to relegation. Newcastle United, currently sitting 15th in the league, travel to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday afternoon looking for the opportunity for a 3rd straight win in the Premiership.

The game against Reading was very entertaining although in terms of performance, it was quite a let down for Newcastle fans. Celestine Babayaro was the worst offender although the rest of the defence did not have pleasing games themselves.

Emre was one of the bright sparks producing another fine display, topped off with a sensational 20 yard strike which wowed the Reading defence.

It’s great to see Obafemi Martins grab a goal (even though it was a penalty) while Antoine Sibierski didn’t let us down once again. Sibierski is no doubt one of our strongest performers this season chalking up 6 goals while he’s been on the pitch; our highest scorer deserves a place on the pitch on Saturday.

SQUADS:
Blackburn: Friedel, Brown, Neill, Ooijer, Todd, Gray, Henchoz, McEveley, Bentley, Tugay, Mokoena, Savage, Peter, Pedersen, Nonda, McCarthy, Gallagher.

Newcastle: Given, Srnicek, Solano, Taylor, Ramage, Huntington, Babayaro, Butt, Emre, N’Zogbia, Milner, Pattison, Troisi, Gate, Edgar, Martins, Sibierski, Luque, Rossi, Carroll.

INJURY NEWS:
Damien Duff has resumed light training in the club’s gym but is still nowhere near recovery while Kieron Dyer has resumed full training, but is still a week short of returning to 1st team action.

Francis Jeffers will miss out despite recovering from a groin strain as the forward broke down again during training this week. Tugay is expected to return to the 1st XI but Brett Emerton (hamstring) and Zurab Khizanishvili (groin) are definitely ruled out.

VIEWS ABOUT THE GAME:
Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder:

“It is one defeat in 11 matches overall.

“We need to carry on picking up points to get away from any concerns of us being in the bottom three.

“There’s no resting on our laurels - we cannot afford to because of what happened at the start of the season.”

“I really believe this middle part of the season fashions a lot for the end of the season.”.

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes:

“We’re a side that needs to start winning more games. That’s obvious.

“The last performance wasn’t good enough, but we know we are better than that and we’ve proved that in games this season.

“But we need more points on the board - and we’re honest enough to admit that”

PREDICTED LINEUP:
Given

Solano
Ramage
Taylor
Babayaro

Milner
Emre
Butt
N’Zogbia

Martins
Sibierski

HEAD 2 HEAD:
Played: 134
Newcastle Win: 59
Draw: 29
Reading Win: 46

THE LAST 6 RESULTS:
Premiership: Newcastle 0-1 Blackburn
Premiership: Blackburn 0-3 Newcastle
Premiership: Blackburn 2-2 Newcastle
Premiership: Newcastle 3-0 Blackburn
Premiership: Blackburn 1-1 Newcastle
Premiership: Newcastle 0-1 Blackburn

PREDICTION:
For me, Newcastle have got to win this game or they’ll be sucked straight back into the relegation fold. I think they will win it… just. I’m going with a 1-0 win with super Sib continuing his fine run of form with his 7th of the season. Howay the Lads!

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