Newcastle travel to a struggling Aston Villa after the international break, and will be buoyed by news that Dean Smith’s side are likely to be missing their top two keepers.
The Chronicle report both Tom Heaton and Jed Steer are injured, which means third choice stopper, Norwegian Orjan Nyland, will step in against Newcastle, and Toon fans think it will hand the Magpies the advantage.
Heaton – who signed from Burnley in the summer – was forced to pull out of the England squad for this week’s games, having missed Villa’s last game with Wolves, and is unlikely to be ready to face Steve Bruce’s side.
As if that was not bad enough, Steer, who was deputising for Heaton in that Wolves game, had to come off with a calf injury. leaving Smith with a crisis ahead of the Newcastle clash.
Aston Villa have a number of injury doubts for Newcastle clash
Villa have seven players listed as doubtful for the game in 11 days time, including star midfielder Jack Grealish, but the player – tipped to be included in Gareth Southgate’s future England squads – is rated as having a 75 per cent chance of playing.
But it is the goalkeeping department that is causing Smith the biggest headache, and Steve Bruce should implement a deliberate tactic to target the incoming Nyland, and test him from the outset.
Newcastle fans certainly think so, and the news has seen them convinced that this could be Miguel Almiron’s big chance to open his goal-scoring account for Newcastle.
But whether it is Almiron who scores or not, Newcastle should certainly be fancying their chances in a game that looked winnable before the news of their goalkeeping problems.
Here are some of the Toon fans’ comments to the news on Twitter:
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