Game On! Newcastle v QPR - Benny on the bench

Good afternoon one and all and welcome to our 'Game On' article which will take us through every twist and turn of this televised encounter against the West London club.

It's set up to be quite an intriguing game in truth. Newcastle have the ultimate motivation of knowing that a win could see us jump as high as fifth in the table should other results go our way.

For that to happen we'll need Arsenal to lose at Swansea and for us to beat QPR (obviously) along with a four goal swing in our favour, so if Arsenal lose by two goals we need to win by two clear goals. Easy. More realistic though is the opportunity to jump into sixth place in the table ahead, of the ultra ambitious Liverpool and their expensively assembled squad.

However QPR aren't the prospect they were just a week ago. They are still without a lot of first team players, but they do have a new manager in the shape of Mark Hughes who will want to avoid defeat in his first game in charge. Add to that a group of players who are all pretty much trying to justify their future at Loftus Road and you can see why they too have motivation for the game today - and that is not even considering the fact that they slipped into the bottom three yesterday!

I honestly hate these type of games. You would have to think we are favourites for the match. Home advantage and finding some form once more, fresh from a last minute win against Blackburn in the FA Cup last weekend and resounding 3-0 victory against Manchester United prior to that it would suggest that we are the favourites. It's a dangerous place to be and some fans will be expecting a relatively easy game. I personally don't think it will be as straight forward that but we'll see...

For more background on the match, some tactical thoughts, analysis and stats why not check out Shamrock's most excellent match preview article by clicking here, or if you want to crunch some numbers and look at a boatload of stats why not take a peek at NUFC_Stats' preview by clicking here.

The match is on Sky this afternoon so those who can't get to the game can be fairly safe in the knowledge that there is a fairly good possibility of picking up an internet stream. Once again, if you come across one on your travels please feel free to leave a link to it in the comments section below.

Right now though it's time for the lads in black and white to do the talking and try and claim that sixth place in the table. Surely not? Sixth in the table with 21 games gone? We'll find out later on this afternoon!

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor, Danny Guthrie, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Shola Ameobi

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, James Perch, Dan Gosling, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa

QPR: Paddy Kenny; Luke Young, Danny Gabbidon, Anton Ferdinand, Clint Hill; Shaun Wright-Phillips, Shaun Derry, Akos Buzsaky, Jamie Mackie; Heidar Helguson, Jay Bothroyd

Subs: Radek Cerny, Bradley Orr, Fitz Hall, Hogan Ephraim, Tommy Smith, DJ Campbell, Federico Macheda