Newcastle and Aston Villa go head to head tonight and both teams will be looking for a win to kick-start the hunt for a UEFA cup place.
Newcastle go in to the game two places and one point ahead of Villa but Newcastle will be aware they face a tough test.
Villa had a cracking start to the season and their recent drop in form drop in form will only make them keener to pick up three points.
And if Newcastle hope to take anything out of the match they may well have to contend with new signings John Carew and Ashley Young, both of whom are named in the Villa squad.
Newcastle are without their only signing of the transfer window (so far, still five hours left?). And Oguchi Onyewu will be joined in the stands by Nobby Solano who is suspended.
And Roeder may have more on his mind that tonight’s match.
Vital Quotes:
‘The fans are right to be clamouring for signings but we don’t want to make mistakes,’ Roeder said.
He added: ‘I wanted the right players, players who are hungry to succeed, players with something to prove. I’m not interested in players who have been dossing around in Europe for a couple of years, players who have been sitting around in the reserves picking up their salaries, people who would have come here for a change of scenery. That’s no good for us.
‘There have been plenty of them around and some of them have been big names. Yes, we could have signed them and it would have made headlines in your newspaper for one morning. But then you would have seen what the player had to offer and you would have asked `what has he signed him for?’ That’s what I didn’t want to happen and there’s no deal I look at where I feel that we have missed out.’
Newcastle Team News:
Newcastle squad: Harper, Srnicek, Carr, Edgar, Taylor, Bramble, Huntington, Butt, Parker, Milner, Duff, Pattison, Troisi, Gate, Martins, Dyer, Sibierski, Luque, Carroll, LuaLua.
Player to watch: Martins
Can’t take your eyes of him for a second.
Aston Villa Team News:
Aston Villa squad: Sorensen, Taylor, Bardsley, Hughes, Mellberg, Cahill, Ridgewell, Bouma, Agbonlahor, Petrov, Davis, Osbourne, McCann, Barry, Carew, Young, Angel.
Player to watch: Carew
If he makes his debut tonight, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly he adapts to the English game.
Match Facts & Stats
Home and away
League: Newcastle 60 wins, Villa 48 Draws 29
Prem: Newcastle 14 wins, Villa 5, Draws 8
at Newcastle only
League: Newcastle 42 wins, Villa 14, Draws 12
Prem: Newcastle 8 wins, Villa 2, Draws 3
Next Fixtures:
Fulham (a)