Match preview Bristol City v Newcastle United

Newcastle take the long trip down south to my hometown city this weekend when they take on Lee Johnson's Bristol City.
I can't promise you sunny southern weather since the sun has decided to take it's own holiday for a while.

Instead Newcastle will be greeted by gale force winds and rain if our local weather men are right. However Toon fans will get to see the newly revamped Ashton Gate stadium which looks very good. I have passed it by on a weekly basis and watched it slowly take shape and it wouldn't look out of place in the Premier league now and that after all is where Bristol City want to be.

City manager Lee Johnson has brought in a number of new players this summer and one in particular takes the eye and that's the loan signing of Tammy Abraham from Chelsea. The lad looks a belter and has already got himself on the score sheet 4 times in their first three matches. I have a sneaky feeling he may prove a handful on saturday so our defence will need to cut out the lack of concentration that has proved our downfall oh so often.

Another player to look out for is Aden Flint, a centre back that Sunderland wanted last season and we were recently linked with. I know that City fans were desperate to see him stay with them as he is an integeral part of the teams spine and were doubtless breathing a collective sigh of relief when we went shopping at Blackburn instead.

Lee Johnson says he's excited at the prospect of pitting his wits up against Rafa Benitez and Ashton Gate will have it's biggest gate for 25 years helped by the newly built stand which has increased the capacity. Some 21,000 are expected on the day with 2,500 from Newcastle.

Referee for the day will be Tony Harrington from Cleveland. He likes a yellow card does Tony, so far dishing out 17 since the season kicked off. Maybe this isn't the game to push boundries then.

Newcastle will be without Sissoko again due to a knock, but Diame is back in contention, Mitrovic serves the last of his 4 game ban.

Bristol City are without defender Derrick Williams (shoulder injury) and both goalkeeper Frank Fielding and midfielder Korey Smith are out with ankle injuries.

Let's hope Newcastle can pick up some more points and build some momentum.

HWTL