Sunday will see Rafa Benitez take the Magpies on the road to Fulham as the Spaniard looks to see out his third – and potentially final – full campaign in charge of the Toon with a win.
The boss has been gifted a lucky omen by the FA ahead of our trip to Craven Cottage, as it has been confirmed that Kevin Friend will take charge of our clash with Fulham.
Constantine Hatzidakis and Matthew Wilkes will join the 47-year-old as his assistants, while Graham Scott will serve the final game of the season as the fourth official.
Our trip to Fulham will be Friend’s fourth Newcastle encounter of the campaign, having taken charge of our trip to the Etihad Stadium in September, along with home ties against Blackburn in the FA Cup and Huddersfield in the league.
He was, however, the fourth official during our last home game – against Liverpool – and some of our players shared words with him at half-time after Trent Alexander-Arnold went unscathed having handled the ball on the line as Christian Atsu fired home the rebound.
Our record with Friend in the middle, meanwhile, has been mixed, too, as Manchester City edged a 2-1 win over us back in September, while Blackburn held us to a replay, but Huddersfield fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Friend also issued Terriers’ captain Tom Smith a straight red card in our February win, which was his second off three straight dismissals this term – Shane Duffy and Anthony Knockaert have both been sent off by Friend this season.
The Leicestershire-born official is not afraid to wave a yellow card, either, with 91 cautions issued in the Premier League alone this season – Friend has also issued 13 in four Championship games, eleven in four FA Cup ties, and eleven in three EFL Cup fixtures.
Having one win, one draw, and one loss to our name with Friend in possession of the whistle this term may not seem like much of a lucky omen, but the official – who first refereed a Premier League game in 2009 – has overseen two games between Fulham and us in the past, and we won both times.
The last time we faced Fulham with Friend in charge came at St James’ Park in 2013, when a single goal by Papiss Demba Cisse deep into stoppage-time settled the encounter.