The team sheets are in at St James’ Park, where Eddie Howe’s Mags take on Marco Silva’s Fulham in today’s 3pm kick-off.
Newcastle are looking to make it 11 wins in our last 12 and bounce back from our last home game; a disappointing 4-1 defeat to Bournemouth a fortnight ago.
Fulham come into the game on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Man Utd, but they’ve been solid on the road this season, losing just one of their last seven away games
Team news
Eddie Howe has gone with the same 11 that started at Southampton last Saturday, keeping faith in the likes of Martin Dubravka and Fabian Schar.
Newcastle XI: Dubravka – Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall – Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton – Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: Pope, Trippier, Osula, Kelly, Longstaff, Willock, Miley, Krafth, Botman.
The unchanged XI means both Sven Botman and Nick Pope remain on the bench, along with Will Osula and Kieran Trippier.
Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes remain out, although it’s hoped Wilson could return for next week’s Carabao Cup semi-final at home to Arsenal.
Fulham XI: Leno; Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Lukic, Berge; Traore, Smith Rowe, Iwobi; Jimenez.
Subs: Benda, Sessegnon, Diop, Reed, King, Pereira, Cairney, Godo, Muniz
Howe’s pre-match comments
Speaking to the media yesterday, Howe discussed our important run of upcoming games and the tough test Fulham will pose.
On vital run of games – “The next group of games will be important for us. Every result takes on huge importance. We have been on a run of results and doing well, so we need to carry that on.”
On Fulham test – “When you play Fulham, you can see their qualities, they are very brave with every aspect, with and without the ball. They have added some players that have made their team very competitive, they were very impressive against us. We know this will be a tough game and we will never underestimate Fulham.”
Howay the lads!