Location – A Le Coq Arena   Kick Off – 15.55pm   Date – Thursday 14th September 2006
Tickets -  All Tickets have been allocated   Coverage - Channel 5 (15.40pm Start)

I have too be honest I know more about knitting than I do about this lot from Estonia but with my investigative hat on here goes. FC Levadia are managed by the local legend that is Tarmo Ruutli and they have made there current stadium a bit of a fortress. There current squad of players apart from a Russian and a couple of Lithuanians all seem to be home grown. Being seeded one of the lowest team in the competition they have proved a number of doubters wrong with two good wins. They have beaten FC Haka by 2 – 1 over two legs and also FC Twente by the same margin again over two legs. They have taken part in the UEFA Cup on three occasions and they have managed to put together a reasonable run of results of 4 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses.

Newcastle come into this game with a very strong record in the UEFA Cup of 86 appearances, 48 wins, 15 draws and 23 losses so we must put our recent run of bad form in the league to one side and concentrate on one of the competitions that may prove successful for us this season.

Current Form

FC Levadia - Currently 16 points clear at the top for there domestic league. They have got 71 points out of 25 games and an impressive 23 wins and 2 draws.

NUFC – Currently 14 in the Premiership with 3 points from 3 games.

Likely Squads:

FC Levadia - Sander Boschker, Rob Wielaert, Peter Niemeyer, Ramon Zomer, Wout Brama, Sharbel Touma, Kennedy Bakircioglü, Isetsima N'Kufo, Jeroen Heubach, Luke Wilkshire, Otman Bakkal, Cees Paauwe, Arnar Vidarsson, Anatoli Gerk, Guilherme Afonso, Bas Sibum, Georgi Gakhokidze, Patrick Gerritsen, Ats Purke.

Man to Watch – Ats Purje – He looks like the danger man.. honest.

NUFC - Given, Harper, Carr, Ramage, Bramble, Moore, Taylor, Babayaro, Emre, Solano, Duff, Butt, N'Zogbia, Milner, O'Brien, Martins, Ameobi, Sibierski, Bernard, Luque

Man to Watch – Bernard – seems the little Frenchman has something to prove.

Fitness News - Owen (Long Term), Dyer (End September) Babayaro (Mystery) Parker (Leg) Rossi (Ineligible) Ameobi (Hip)

Additional News – If you are lucky enough to be going to Estonia then “God Speed” and for those of us a little less fortunate we are in the more than capable hands of the Gobshite that is Colin J Murray on Channel 5. So if you are struggling for excuses why you should be leaving work early on Thursday then help yourself to one of these.....

• I’ve got the priest coming round to deliver communion to my dying cat.

• Last night a member of the Russian mafia took my gerbil hostage and they are demanding the ransom to be paid at 3.30pm tomorrow.

• You’ve got to pick the wife up from pole-dancing lessons.

• You’ve got the results from the paternity test to pick up.

• If your not home to meet the kids from school your pretty sure they will sell the TV again to feed their habits.

ES