It’s the big one tomorrow. The Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at St Mary’s as Newcastle take on Southampton. Kick-off is at 8pm.
Newcastle were handed a favourable draw for the semi-final with the first leg being away, which means any mistakes we make at St Mary’s can be rectified on home turf in front of the Toon Army.
On paper, this should be a Newcastle win, but you can imagine that all the Manchester City writers said the same in the quarter-final and look what happened. We absolutely have to be on our guard, but still play our game.
We have already put four goals past Southampton at St Mary’s, so we should take that with us into this game.
One thing we do need to be mindful of is our lack of goals lately. Eddie Howe addressed Callum Wilson’s goal drought this morning telling The Chronicle: “He’s missed big chunks of training and I think that always affects your sharpness as a player – regardless of position. Callum’s worked really hard for the team and, knowing him as I do, the goals are just around the corner.”
Alexander Isak is another one who’s been on a reduced training regime, but I think tomorrow is the perfect opportunity to give him his chance to lead the line. It would be my only change to the team that took on Crystal Palace on Saturday.
I don’t think Howe will make wholesale changes for this one like he did in the FA Cup, not with it being a semi-final against Premier League opposition. This is a rare occasion when I’d take a 0-0 draw because at least we know we can inflict the damage the following week at St James’ Park. That being said, I’m still backing us to win to put is in the driving seat for the second leg.
Score Prediction: Southampton 0-2 Newcastle United