Newcastle United v Birmingham City
The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
Third Round Proper Replay
8pm, Wednesday 17 January 2007
St. James' Park
Live on BBC1
Winning clubs will receive £40,000 from The FA
Televised ties - Both teams receive £150,000 from The FA
Third Round ties and replays - Click Here



Newcastle assistant manager Nigel Pearson hopes his side's thrilling 3-2 Premiership win at Tottenham on Sunday will inspire them to finish the job against Championship leaders Birmingham City in their FA Cup Third Round replay on Wednesday evening.

The Magpies have struggled with a crippling injury list this season - they are still without more than the equivalent of an entire team - and Pearson admitted: "This is a game we could have done without, in all honesty.

"But it's one we want to win and the result at Tottenham will have been fantastic if we can build on that.

"We would have preferred to have won this tie on the day at Birmingham, but we have another good opportunity and we need to make sure we do it this time. There's no room for complacency."

Striker Obafemi Martins scored a stunning goal against Spurs, but Pearson believes the £10million signing from Inter Milan can still improve.

He said: "There's no doubt he's in a rich vein of form in terms of goalscoring. He's young and there's always room for improvement, but he's doing very well.''

Manager Glenn Roeder is standing by his rookie squad. "There will be no changes and we will have the same personnel on the bench,'' said Roeder, who hailed former Birmingham loanee Nicky Butt after his match-winning display at White Hart Lane.

"He'd been ill all last week, but he played on Sunday and was magnificent. Scoring the winner was a just reward for him.

"When Nicky went on loan to Birmingham last season, no-one really thought he would be back here.

"But he's playing as well as ever and I'm glad he's in our team and not Birmingham's.''