Luton Town’s tough December schedule in the Premier League continues as we host Newcastle United at Kenilworth Road on Saturday afternoon.
Rob Edwards’ side will be on the pitch for the first time since captain Tom Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest at the abandoned game against AFC Bournemouth last week.
Eddie Howe’s Magpies currently sit in sixth place in the Premier League after crashing out of the UEFA Champions League group stage last week.
The opposition
Former Bournemouth manager Howe arrived at St. James’ Park after being appointed by their new Saudi Arabian consortium in November 2021.
The Magpies steered themselves away from the relegation zone by the end of the 2021/22 season before their first top four finish last season in two decades.
Newcastle have won just one of their last ten Premier League away games, which was the 8-0 victory against newly promoted Sheffield United in September.
The away side are unbeaten in their last 16 Premier League games against promoted sides since a 2-1 home loss to Leeds in January 2021.
The last league meeting between these two teams was in January 1993 in the second tier, which finished in a goalless draw.
Words from Rob
"We'll expect the best version of Newcastle as we always do. I know they have had a lot of games and had injury problems as a lot of teams have, which has been well documented.
"I have the upmost respect for Eddie Howe and what he's done, not just at Newcastle but before in his career.
"What he's done at this football club has been incredible with these players. They are exceptionally good and they run hard, so we'll be expecting a really tough game on Saturday."
Last meeting
Newcastle welcomed League Two Luton to Tyneside in the FA Cup third round back in 2018, with the Hatters unable to cause an upset.
Danny Hylton scored his 17th goal of the season after Ayoze Perez’s brace and Jonjo Shelvey added a third to put the game out of sight before half-time in-front of 7,500 travelling Hatters fans.
Last time at the Kenny
The Hatters almost claimed a famous result against treble winners Manchester City a fortnight ago at Kenilworth Road.
Elijah Adebayo scored on the stroke of half-time to give the home side the lead before Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish turned the game around for the champions.
Team news
Marvelous Nakamba’s one-game suspension that he picked up against Man City for his fifth yellow card of the season has carried over from last week to this game.
Mads Andersen, Chieo Ogbene and Gabe Osho will be available for selection after returning to the matchday squad last week.
Cauley Woodrow has reached full fitness again; he was in contention for Bournemouth last week but was not selected for the 20-man squad.
Officials
The referee for our fixture against Newcastle will be Darren England.
56 yellow cards and one red card has been handed out by England across his 10 games this season.
Luton Town last had a game ran by England when we visited Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers towards the end of last season’s Championship promotion-winning campaign.
Referee: Darren England
Assistant Referees: Neil Davies & Darren Cann
Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Peter Bankes
AVAR: Nick Greenhalgh
LOVE FOOTBALL. PROTECT THE GAME.
Luton Town Football Club has committed in its customer charter to providing safe match-day experiences for all supporters regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation, and this applies equally to home and away fixtures.
In the event that any Luton supporters do make discriminatory chants, the Club will work with the police and football authorities to help identify such individuals. Any such fans would then face the strictest club sanctions, including football banning orders that would prevent them attending any matches, in addition to any criminal charges.
The Club can also be held responsible for the behaviour of its supporters, which could lead to substantial fines being imposed.
As a diverse and inclusive football club, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our fellow Premier League clubs in supporting the FA’s ‘Love Football. Protect the Game’ campaign and call on all fans to enjoy the game in a positive spirit.
Please email myvoice@lutontown.co.uk if you have any concerns and to report incidents at a Luton Town fixture. You can also report incidents via Kick it Out's free, confidential reporting app on the App Store and Google Play.
Fan information
We would like to remind supporters to arrive at the game as early as possible to ease congestion around the stadium, at the Ticket Office and the turnstiles.
There will be additional road closures around Kenilworth Road on home matchdays.