Game On! Newcastle v Blackburn - Abeid and Ben Arfa start

Welcome one and all to this special FA Cup edition of our 'Game On' articles which will take us through this afternoons 3rd Round tie against Blackburn at St James' Park.

Fans who make the trip to SJP today will be in fine fettle after the midweek demolition of Manchester United and will no doubt be eyeing another win.

However the magic of the FA Cup has often deserted us since the halcyon days of the 1950's and more often than not we've been left wanting in our pursuit of some silverware. Granted we've made the final a couple of times, but for every high there has been one or two lows to accompany it. Hereford..... Stevenage..... The 5-1 home defeat to Steve Bruce's Birmingham City..... You get the point.

Standing in our way today are Blackburn Rovers - a team I dislike more than many others purely down to their party-pooping habits. I can't help but feel that this game has the all the makings of being one of those 'after the lord mayor's show' kind of affairs although as ever I remain hopeful of a win and a safe and smooth progression through to round four.

I suggest you check out Shamrock's pointed most excellent match preview which offers everything from stats to history to some tactical thoughts ahead of the game. His previews really are a must read!

In terms of TV streams I have some bad news. The match is not scheduled for overseas broadcasting so getting hold of a stream may prove to be a little bit tricky. The coverage of the "most famous cup competition in the world" is pretty shocking to be fair unless there is a chance of an upset or it's a clash between two of the "big hitters" like Manchester City and Manchester United. Consequently if you do stumble across a stream on your internet travels please feel free to leave a link to it and share it with your fellow black and white brothers and sister.

That just about sums it up from me. Team news is featured below and will be updated as and when I manage to get hold of it so as a result you may just see the first teams up for a bit whilst I scrabble about trying to get hold of the substitutes or something like that. Don't panic though, they will be there in full well before kick-off!

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye, Mehdi Abeid, Jonas Gutierrez; Hatem Ben Arfa; Leon Best

Subs: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi

Blackburn: Mark Bunn, Martin Olsson, Adam Henley, Grant Hanley, Gael Givet, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Simon Vukcevic, Ruben Rochina, Steven N'Zonzi, Radoslav Petrovic, David Goodwillie

Subs: Jake Kean, Joah Morris, Jordan Slew, Jason Lowe, Nick Blackman, Yakubu, Mauro Formica