Blackburn
Line-up
- 1David Raya
- 17Bell, Amari
- 26D. Lenihan
- 2R. Nyambe
- 31E. Bennett
- 6R. Smallwood
- 27L. Travis
- 4H. Reed
- 7A. Armstrong
- 10D. Graham
- 19B. Brereton
- 32C. Conway
- 23B. Dack
- 8Rothwell, Joe
- 24J. Nuttall
Subs
- 13Leutwiler, Jayson
- 35Grayson, Joe
- 34D. Butterworth
Newcastle
Line-up
- 41F. Woodman
- 19Javier Manquillo
- 2C. Clark
- 18F. Fernández
- 25Jamie Sterry
- 5F. Schär
- 11M. Ritchie
- 36S. Longstaff
- 7J. Murphy
- 37Roberts, Callum
- 21Joselu
- 30C. Atsu
- 14I. Hayden
- 17Ayoze Pérez
Subs
- 29Harker, Nathan
- 6J. Lascelles
- 22D. Yedlin
- 9José Salomón Rondón
Blackburn are pretty confident in their Championship place, with a 14 point lead over the bottom three. They are perfectly set up to take the cup seriously, while they showed their potential by causing problems in the first meeting between these two. There shouldn’t be a massive gap in quality, especially if the visitors are set to rotate within a thin squad.
Newcastle come here winless in six games, while their last away FA Cup victory was at Cheltenham in 2006. They’ve seen 15 ties pass since then, while they’ve lost eight of their last nine trips in the FA Cup. I see Blackburn as worthy favourites for this tie, especially after losing just once in seven home games.