Big match preview - Newcastle vs West Ham United.

A tale of two United's will ensue this evening when Avram Grant brings his slighly happier Hammers to St James' Park.

Both United's will be looking to build on the respective wins they managed to pick up in their last outing. Newcastle managed a 1-0 win over Wigan in their last game whilst West Ham buried another team that is struggling at the foot of the table as they dispatched Wolves 2-0 at Upton Park at the weekend.

A win for either side would assist in dragging them temporarily clear of the drop zone ahead of the break in fixtures for The FA Cup this coming weekend. In fact if the result goes in favour of the home side, and if other results go the right way, Newcastle could very easily find themselves sitting in eigth place in the table come the end of the evening.

Andy Carroll is still missing for the home side as he continues to recover from a thigh injury. The lanky striker is also likely to miss the weekend trip to Stevenage and is rated as '50-50' for the Sunderland match in a couple of weeks time.

Sol Campbell will be missing as he is still struggling with a mystery illness whilst Ryan Taylor and Hatem Ben Arfa remain long term injury absentees.

Shola Amoebi looks likely to play through the pain barrier again whilst Dan Gosling edges ever closer to a first team return after being named in the matchday squad for the game at Wigan last Sunday.

I don't expect us to make many, if any, changes for the match against West Ham, despite the short break between fixtures. Instead I think that Alan Pardew will opt to rest some players for the match against Stevenage on Saturday evening. Basically, the team that I think will play is the team that played on Sunday at Wigan.

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi.

West Ham will give fitness tests to Valon Behrami ans Lars Jacobsen ahead of the game although both are expected to be fit enough to at least make the bench. Mark Noble returned from injury against Wolves at the weekend and is pushing for a place in the starting eleven.

Despite the return of those three players, West Ham still have a lengthly injury list to contend. Top of the crocks is the one and only Kieron Dyer, which is to be expected I guess, but joining him in the treatment room are Jack Collison, Anthony Edgar, Peter Kurucz, Manuel da Costa, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Herita Ilunga and Benni McCarthy.

Perhaps the most intriguing battle of the night could take place in the middle of the park when Cheik Tiote and Scott Parker go toe-to-toe. The winner of that battle could have a very real impact on the result this evening, but the prospect of seeing the two players face-off against one another is mouth-watering.

West Ham have not won at St James' Park since 1998 when The Hammers won 3-0, although Carlton Cole has managed to net against Newcastle in his last two games.

The 3-1 victory West Ham recorded at Fulham in their last away outing was their first away victory in 27 attempts. The last time they won back-to-back away games was in 2007.

Newcastle have scored 20 goals in their 10 league games at St James' Park, but have been beaten four times on their home patch - more than any other team. They have won only two of their last nine league games on Tyneside, keeping just the one clean sheet in the process.

It's a tough one to call in my opinion. My heart is telling me that Newcastle will build on the Wigan victory by taking three points again this evening, but then my head remembers that I said much the same thing in the build up to the Blackpool, Stoke and Blackburn games. On that basis, I'm saying nothing!

Howay the lads!