Newcastle v Manchester United - Premier League match preview.

Newcastle take on Manchester United tomorrow evening in what is likely to be a high-octane affair at St James' Park.

There is something about night games at St James' Park that makes them a bit special in my eyes. I can't quite put my finger on why I feel like that, but I love seeing NUFC play at a floodlit SJP. It's magic, and a result against a title-challenging Manchester United will make it that bit more magical.

It will be a tough ask though as we have struggled to get anything from Manchester United for a good number of years now. In fact the last time we beat them was back in 2001, and you can watch that match by clicking here.

Team news...

Cheik Tiote returns from suspension to bolster the middle of the park for the home side although unfortunately the good news ends there. James Perch also returns aswell, if you class that as good news.

Kevin Nolan serves the final game of his suspension whilst there are doubts over the fitness of Steve Harper, Shola Ameobi and over the readiness of Stephen Ireland who has been distracted by his wife taking ill after a car crash last week. Hatem Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling are training again although the match will be too soon for them whilst Leon Best and Alan Smith will miss the rest of the season.

Assuming the latest Twitter gossip (Harper definitely out, Shola 50/50, Ireland to feature) is true I'd probably go with a team that looks a bit like this:

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi.

Manchester United welcome back grannybanger Wayne Rooney after his suspension for gobbing off at a TV camera, but they wave goodbye to Paul Scholes for three games after his sending off against Manchester City at the weekend. Darren Fletcher, Owen Hargreaves, Rafael and Anders Lindegaard will be missing through injury.

Man Utd played out a productive yet unspectacular and perhaps predictable 2-0 win over Fulham in their last match where they lined up with a team of:

Man Utd: Tomasz Kuszczak, John O'Shea, Chris Smalling, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Nani, Darron Gibson, Paul Scholes, Anderson, Antonio Valencia, Dimitar Berbatov.

Form and facts...

The Red Devils have won 13 of the last 16 meetings between the two sides and have scored six against us twice in that run of games.

Jonas Gutierrez is in line for his 100th league appearance for Newcastle, while Steven Taylor could make his 150th career league appearance in the black and white stripes.

Manchester United have been relatively poor on the road this season and have won only five of their last 16 away Premier league games.

Summary...

I'm not expecting too much from this match to be honest. I'd be delighted with a draw and on cloud nine with a win, however I feel we could be on the end of another humping come around 9:40pm tomorrow evening.

P.S. Remember the game is scheduled for a 7:45pm kick-off and will be screened live on Sky Sports for those unfortunates who can't make the game.

Howay the lads!