Newcastle Host Stoke In Mid-Table Face Off

Neither Newcastle nor Stoke are troubling the relegation zone, though nor are they tangibly close to the Champions League places. In spite of this, both teams will look to make further progress up the Premier League table as they meet at St James` Park tomorrow.

Stoke are currently in 10th position in the top tier of English football and could overtake Swansea in ninth with a victory away from home. Conversely, Newcastle lurk in 11th and will be looking to supersede the Potters by earning the three points.

The last time the two sides met was back in September when home side City managed to grab the win over the Tyneside club with a 1-0 victory. Peter Crouch was the only goalscorer on that day and headed home the winner just past the 15 minute mark. Newcastle were of course under the control of Alan Pardew at this point, prior to the exit that saw him link up with Crystal Palace.

In spite of Stoke`s former success, it is Newcastle who are the favourites for the win, a number of bookmakers pricing the Toon up at 13/10. Both bet365 and boylesports have a draw available at 12/5 whilst a Stoke victory is there for the taking at 13/5 (Betvictor, boylesports). A similar 1-0 victory to the away side, in a repeat of the September game, will earn returns at odds of 9/1 with bet365 and Betvictor.

Crouch is 8/1 (boylesports, paddy Power) to open the scoring in successive games against Newcastle. He hasn`t hit the back of the net since scoring the Potters` only goal in a 1-1 tie with Crystal Palace back in December, a full 10 games ago.

Despite the profligacy of one of their main strikers, Mark Hughes` men have managed to put together a run of back-to-back games unbeaten on the road. The first of these came against bottom side Leicester, Bojan Krkic bagging the only goal of the game before the side put four past League One Rochdale in the FA Cup in their 4-1 victory. Krkic opened the scoring once again with Stephen Ireland, Victor Moses and Jonathan Walters all contributing the others.

In terms of the league, the Potters have scooped seven points from their previous five away games, losing only to superpowers Arsenal (3-0) and Manchester United (2-1). The West Midlands team scored just one goal in each of these games, except the Gunners match in which they failed to hit the back of the net and are 17/10 (Betvictor) to score exactly one again tomorrow.

They will have to improve their goal scoring record with Krkic out for the season with a knee injury sustained in the Rochdale cup clash.

The Stoke encounter will be John Carver`s sixth game in charge of Newcastle, having picked up one win, a draw and three defeats from his first five matches in the dugout.

The former assistant`s only victory came last time out away at local rivals Hull City, Remy Cabella, Sammy Ameobi and Yoan Gouffran all hitting the back of the net in the 3-0 triumph. This wasn`t the first time the side have scored three under Carver, the Magpies drawing 3-3 with Burnley at home in his first match in charge.

A different three faces scored in that New Year`s Day clash, Steven Taylor, Jack Colback and Moussa Sissoko, and United are 5/1 with Coral to score over 2.5 tomorrow.

Hull were the first team to fail to score against the Carver-helmed Newcastle following this Burnley draw, and defeats against Leicester (1-0), Chelsea (2-0) and Southampton (2-1) and 17/10 (Numerous) says the home side will manage to keep back-to-back clean sheets.

Go To bet365

#Ad

07/02/2015     © Frixo 2026