THE OPPOSITION

Five wins, three draws, and five defeats has been a solid, if not spectacular, start to the 20/21 Premier League season for Steve Bruce's Magpies.

The Toon lost just two of their opening seven league games, picking up wins over West Ham United, Burnley, and Everton in those early months. After defeats to Chelsea and Southampton, United picked up back-to-back wins, either side of an enforced shutdown for Covid-19, against Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion. Their last two games have seen a 5-2 defeat at Leeds United before a 1-1 home draw against Fulham.

In the Carabao Cup, they beat Blackburn Rovers 1-0 in Round Two before putting seven past Morecambe a week later. They survived a huge scare to reach the Last Eight, trailing at Newport County until the 87th minute before going through on penalties to set up tonight's tie.

TEAM NEWS

Thomas Frank confirmed at Monday's press conference that Christian Norgaard would feature tonight, two-and-a-half months after picking up an ankle injury against Preston North End. Pontus Jansson is out, as are Mads Roerslev and Shandon Baptiste.

Newcastle are still suffering the effects of last month's Covid outbreak. Jamaal Lascelles and Allan Saint-Maximim haven't returned to training yet, unable to shake off the effect of long Covid, while Fabian Schar and Martin Dubarvka are both out injured.

THE MANAGER

Steve Bruce is in his fifth decade in professional football after a stellar career as a player and a manager. Bruce started out at Gillingham but made his name as part of the Norwich City team that won promotion from Division Two in 1986 before finishing fifth in Division One the season after. While at Carrow Road he also won the League Cup in 1985 before moving to Manchester United in 1987. At Old Trafford, Bruce won three League titles, three FA Cups, three Charity Shields, a League Cup, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Super Cup.

Newcastle is Bruce's 11th job with ten different clubs. He has four promotions from the second tier on his CV, split between his time with Birmingham City and Hull City, as well as an FA Cup runners-up medal while on Humberside. So far, his 61 matches in charge of his hometown club have brought 21 wins and a 13th placed finish in the Premier League last season.

THOMAS THOUGHTS

PRE-MATCH VIEWS

⚖ Robert Jones will be the man in charge tonight

🆚 The inside track on The Magpies

HOW TO FOLLOW

Tonight's game is exclusively live on Sky Sports.

Audio Match Passes to listen live on iFollow Brentford are available to buy for £2.50

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