Game On! Newcastle v Stoke

It'll be homely this Christmas... Good afternoon one and all. I trust you had a wonderful Christmas Day full of happiness?

Well that's all gone now. Only 364 days until the next one. So with Christmas out of the way we can all focus on football once more.

Up today we have the visit of Stoke City in what is a rare Boxing Day fixture at home for us. Usually it is fans of United who are subjected to long trips over the Christmas period but this time round it has fallen rather favourably for us with back-to-back home games between now and New Year.

This won't be an easy game - matches against Stoke rarely are and while much has been made about our recent form, as pointed out in my match preview , it is well worth noting that Stoke have only lost one of the last eight games just like us.

Both sides are missing at least one player as Cheik Tiote sits out for United through suspension and Robert Huth continues to recover from an operation for Stoke. Full team news will be available ahead of the match and can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Unfortunately we are kicking off at 3pm UK time which we aren't being broadcast live here in Blighty. The good news is that a rake of overseas companies are showing the game so there should be some streams kicking about. If you do find one then please share it with your fellow NUFC fans and leave a link to it in the 'comments' section below.

Sticking with the Christmas theme, I guess this article is now neatly wrapped up and we can focus on the football. Hopefully our players laid off the party food yesterday and we don't suffer from a hangover.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Krul; Debuchy, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Santon; Sissoko, Cabaye, Anita; Ben Arfa, Remy, Gouffran

Subs: Elliot, Yanga-Mbiwa, S.Taylor, Haidara, Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Cisse

Stoke: Sorensen, Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters, Walters, Nzonzi, Whelan, Adam, Assaidi, Crouch

Subs: Butland, Muniesa, Palacios, Jones, Arnautovic, Wilkinson, Ireland