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Premier League Newcastle won’t be taking the Gills lightly in Tuesday night’s Capital One Cup match.
The northeast side have failed to score a goal in either of their opening two Premier League matches and visiting boss Alan Pardew believes domestic cup competitions are his best chance of success.
Newcastle kicked off their season with a 2-0 home loss against defending champions Manchester City and followed that up with a goalless draw against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Pardew is set to name a strong team when his team return to Priestfield for the first time since 1977.
‘I would like a cup run,” said Pardew.
“I am sure that our fans would love a cup run and I am sure the board will love a cup run.”
Pardew will also be wary of an upset. In January, 2011 his team lost 3-1 to League 2 Stevenage.
Newcastle avoided the traffic by flying into Kent on Tuesday morning.
The Gills are close to selling out the second round match. Just seven tickets remained on the club’s ticketing website on Tuesday morning.
Newcastle were issued with 1,295 tickets themselves in what will be there first visit in over 30 years. Some of their unsold allocation has since been released to Gills fans.
Gills boss Peter Taylor is likely to have the same squad available as he did for the weekend trip to Barnsley.
Doug Loft (Achilles), Joe Martin (thigh) and Amine Linganzi (hamstring) are all unlikely to return.
Cody McDonald (ankle) made a timely return to action at Oakwell on Saturday and he could be in line for a start, alongside stand-in skipper Danny Kedwell.