Huddersfield v Newcastle: Dwight Gayle in frame for Championship clash on Sky Sports
Saturday 4 March 2017 17:36, UK
Huddersfield midfielder Aaron Mooy is back in contention for the home game against Sky Bet Championship leaders Newcastle.
Mooy, on loan from Manchester City, was ineligible to face his parent club in Town's midweek FA Cup replay defeat.
Head coach David Wagner made nine changes at the Etihad Stadium and is expected to revert back to a line-up similar to the one which started in last week's draw at Barnsley.
Live EFL
The likes of Izzy Brown, Chris Loewe, Danny Ward, Michael Hefele and Elias Kachunga are all hoping for recalls, while Christopher Schindler (leg) and Kasey Palmer (hamstring) will be assessed after missing out on Wednesday night.
Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez will again assess leading scorer Dwight Gayle ahead of another key game.
The 20-goal frontman missed Tuesday night's dramatic 2-1 victory at Brighton with a hamstring problem, and Benitez sprang something of a surprise when he named Yoan Gouffran in attack and left Aleksandar Mitrovic, Ayoze Perez and Daryl Murphy sitting on the bench.
It was Perez who snatched victory with a precious late strike with Murphy also making an impact after his introduction, and the Magpies manager will face a similar decision at the John Smith's Stadium.
Rolando Aarons is working his way back towards match fitness after recovering from a serious knee injury, but fellow midfielder Isaac Hayden continues his rehabilitation following ankle surgery.
Opta stats
Huddersfield have managed just one win in their last nine league games against Newcastle (D4 L4), however that came in this season's reverse fixture (2-1).
Newcastle's last away win against Huddersfield in league competition came in December 1963 (D3 L1 since).
The only team on a longer unbeaten run in the Championship than Huddersfield (7, W6 D1) are opponents Newcastle (9, W6 D3).
Four of the seven matches Newcastle have lost this season have been when Yoan Gouffran hasn't started - their win percentage with him in the starting XI is 78% (21 wins from 27 games).
Huddersfield have won all five matches in which Tareiq Holmes-Dennis has started in the Championship this season.
Prutton's prediction
Newcastle will have been buoyed by the result at Brighton, but Huddersfield have shown they can go up against the top teams in the division and win. They've shown the kind of team they are lately, and if they hadn't had that dip they'd be right up there with the top two.
They got flattened at Manchester City, but those were world-class players and there's no disgrace in that. We'll probably see a whole host of changes again and I fancy them against Newcastle.
David Prutton predicts: 2-1 with Nahki Wells first goalscorer (35/1 with Sky Bet)
