Newcastle United vs Wolves - Match Preview

Newcastle United welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to St. James' Park this afternoon, the visitors who have a new manager in Terry Connor. The former assistant to axed Mick McCarthy was given the reigns yesterday until the end of the season after a flurry of candidates turned down the job at the Molineux in the last fortnight. He has 13 games remaining to keep Wolves in the division, with a tough visit to the North East today to start his gauntlet. Meanwhile Newcastle will be hoping to take three points today that could send them back into fourth by end of play today depending on struggling Chelsea's result against Bolton at Stamford Bridge. After the 5-0 thrashing at White Hart Lane, Newcastle boss Alan Pardew will be delighted to welcome back key central midfield pairing Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye. Tiote has missed the last seven matches because of Ivory Coast's African Cup of Nations campaign, whilst Cabaye has missed the last three matches through suspension. United also welcome back Ryan Taylor after missing the Spurs game with an ankle injury he sustained in Newcastle's last home match against Aston Villa. Leon Best (knee) has been ruled out for the rest of the season, as has Steven Taylor (groin), though the club hope Sammy Ameobi (knee) and Sylvain Marveaux (groin) might be able to feature before the end of the season. Steve Harper and Nile Ranger are both unfit but also out of favour. Karl Henry is available for selection for Wolves after serving his three-match ban for being sent off against Villa. Top scorer and key man Steven Fletcher has missed a few days training with a virus and migraine but Wolves are optimistic that he might play. Michael Kightly is recovering from his back injury and could play on the wing. Defender Ronald Zubar could be back after playing over an hour of a resevre game on Tuesday, the most action he has seen since a knee injury ruled him out in December. Kick-off today is 3pm and the game is not televised anywhere in the UK.

Line-ups from;

Newcastle (from): Krul, Elliot, Harper, Simpson, Santon, Ferguson, Perch, Coloccini, Williamson, Kadar, Tiote, Cabaye, R. Taylor, Obertan, Ben Arfa, Gutierrez, Gosling, Abeid, Ba, Cisse, Shola Ameobi, Lovenkrands. Wolves (from): Hennessey, De Vries, Foley, Stearman, Doherty, Johnson, Bassong, Berra, Ward, Elokobi, Kightly, Hammill, Hunt, Henry, Edwards, Forde, Jarvis, Doyle, Ebanks-Blake, Fletcher, Jonsson.