Buoyant Baggies take on the Toon

Newcastle United v West Bromwich Albion; St James’s Park, Wednesday 26th August 2026, 7.45pm

James Morrison will be delighted with his team’s start to the campaign with three victories from the first three games of the season, and it will be interesting to see how he approaches Wednesday’s game at Newcastle United. Head coaches have tended to make wholesale changes for this competition in recent years, but I do wonder whether Mozza’s team will be relatively strong.

The team that played the first round game at Rotherham United was probably as strong as it could have been, but he had a clear week until the next competitive fixture – the next league match at Middlesbrough is on Saturday lunchtime, which doesn’t give much recovery time for players involved in both games. With Saturday’s match also in the north east, I’d like to think that the club will have found somewhere in the area to train between games rather than put in another round trip to the midlands, albeit that may have been difficult to arrange at short notice.

From what Morrison has said previously, I think he sees cup runs as beneficial – he was, of course, involved in Albion’s run to the FA Cup semi-final in 2008 that didn’t harm the club’s promotion campaign as they also won the Championship that year. Maintaining a winning mentality helps and, while it is obviously useful to give fringe players an opportunity to get more minutes in a competitive game, I also don’t think progression in cup competitions should be merely sacrificed. Let’s face it, Albion’s squad isn’t really deep enough to make too many changes and give the team anything like a chance against what I expect will be a largely second-string Newcastle United side. Magpies boss, Matthias Jaissle, has many more options available to him than Morrison.

I do think that we will see a competitive debut for Matt Ingram, and I would also expect Barney Stewart to be given his first competitive start with Heggebø serving the second game of his ridiculous suspension. Beyond that, it is difficult to decide how Mozza will go. The likes of Bielik, Mepham, Townsend and Williams will be eager to get some more minutes, but can you really change the entire defensive line and expect the team to compete? With no sign of Collyer completing a move and Mikey Johnston suffering an apparent minor setback on his road to recovery, the options in midfield and attack are a little thin on the ground. Having made the bench on Sunday, Tammer Bany might get some minutes, but I’m not sure he will be risked from the start, and there is a possibility that Rabby Nzingoula might make his full debut after a couple of promising cameos.

The form of Ousmane Diakité means that his absence from the side would be huge, but he may well get a rest nonetheless. One of either he or Jayson Molumby in the side would be preferable, but with the Irishman having limped off the pitch on Sunday, there will be doubts about his fitness to start a match three days later. I guess Styles is an option in the middle of the park if Townsend comes in, but doesn’t give the Hungarian international a break while I guess Bielik is another potential choice, albeit one of last resort.

In short, even if Morrison does want to rest some of his players, he is limited on the choices he can make without completely sacrificing the game.

New Toon boss, Matthias Jaissle, started his tenure at St James’s Park with a creditable draw against Liverpool, albeit the visitors’ equaliser came in stoppage time denying him a winning start. Incidentally, that would have been the Reds’ first opening day defeat since Albion beat them 3-0 in 2012. It’s been a difficult window for the Geordies as the financial realities of the sustainability rules kicked in hard, negating the massive wealth of the Saudi owners. Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães have all left for huge fees while there have been significant outlays on Sean Steur, Amar Dedić, Lukáš Horníček, Aladji Bamba, Ewen Jaouen and Bazoumana Touré giving the starting line-up for Sunday’s game a somewhat unfamiliar look. Of their new faces, Jaouen and Touré remained on the bench on Sunday, while Bamba came on for the last quarter of an hour. With Nick Pope rumoured to be on his way, Jaouen looks to be the new second choice ‘keeper and would seem certain to start, while I’d expect to see Touré (a winger) and Bamba (a defensive midfielder) given their competitive full debuts. Of the two former Albion loan players, we are more likely to see Jacob Murphy who had minutes off the bench on Sunday, as opposed to Harvey Barnes who played the full ninety minutes. Newcastle’s bench on Sunday also included the likes of Fabian Schär, Joe Willock (who came on and scored) and Nick Woltemade so even a second-string selection is likely to be packed with talent and will present a tough opposition for the Baggies. The injury to striker, William Osula, may also impact Jaissle’s decision-making with the Dane expected to be out for several weeks.

Under Eddie Howe, United won this competition in 2025 playing a fairly strong side in every round, albeit they needed penalties to get past Nottingham Forest in the second round. That season, like this, they had no European football to worry about; if Jaissle takes the same approach as Howe, perhaps it will be a very strong side that the Baggies face on Wednesday evening.

I’d like to think that a full strength Albion side with their current levels of confidence could give any Newcastle team a decent game, and beat them with a little luck. With Isaac Price telling the BBC that the boys are buzzing for the game, he would seem to expect to be involved indicating that Mozza has not, so far, indicated that he will be making wholesale changes.

It’s a game I’m looking forward to, even if it could turn out to be a reality check. Hopefully, it will be another encouraging performance that will impress the remarkable 2,000 Baggies fans making the trip and, even if it does end in defeat, it would be great to take some more positivity to Teesside at the weekend.

History

Wednesday evening will see the third meeting between Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup – like this match, both previous meetings have been at St James’s Park and, surprising as it may be, the Baggies were victorious on both occasions.

The first such meeting took place in October 1989 when both clubs were in Division Two. It was still something of a shock result, however, as the Toon were pushing hard for a return to the top flight having been relegated the summer before and were sitting in second place in the table. Brian Talbot’s Albion team, meanwhile, were languishing in mid-table. In front of more than 22,000 spectators, Chris Whyte scored the only goal of the game and Albion progressed to Round Four where they would be beaten by Division One Derby County. The shock nature of the result was demonstrated when Jim Smith took his Newcastle team to the Hawthorns a week later for a league match and promptly thumped the Baggies 5-1 with a largely unchanged team – in those days, there was no squad rotation for cup ties.

The second League Cup meeting took place in October 2003 – United were an established Premier League side under Sir Bobby Robson while the Baggies had just been relegated from their first season in that competition under Gary Megson. Robson had rested a few of his superstars including Shearer, Given and Speed, and back-up goalkeeper, Steve Harper, was beaten inside half an hour when Tommy Gaardsøe’s header flicked off Shola Ameobi to give the visitors the lead. Russell Hoult in the Baggies goal had to pull off a string of fine saves to keep the lead intact before he was finally beaten by Laurent Robert on 65 minutes. Gary Speed had been introduced at half time and, after the visitors continued to hold out until extra-time, Alan Shearer was introduced eight minutes into the additional half an hour. Megson had made his own changes, bringing on Joost Volmer, Ronnie Wallwork and Lee Hughes and it was Hughsie who finished calmly past Harper with nine minutes of extra time remaining to win the tie.

Albion’s record in the league at SJP is not quite as impressive winning on just one of their last six visits – that was in April 2018 when Darren Moore’s team won 1-0 thanks to Matt Phillips’ goal to prolong the hopes of a second great escape. The only other victory since the League Cup win in 2003 was in December 2011 when an exciting game was finally won by Paul Scharner’s 85th minute goal. Peter Odemwingie and Gareth McAuley had both put the visitors ahead only for Demba Ba to equalise for the Toon on each occasion, but they couldn’t respond to the Austrian’s late strike and Roy Hodsgon’s team took the points.

The Baggies biggest win at Newcastle was in September 1953 when the “Team of the Century” as they were dubbed won an incredible match 7-3 – Johnny Nicholls scored a hat-trick, Ronnie Allen bagged a brace and Reg Ryan and Frank Griffin put the “gloss” on the scoreline late on. Vic Keeble and Bobby Mitchell (2) scored for the hosts. Newcastle’s biggest home win over Albion is 5-1, a result they have achieved three times, most recently in November 1949.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

7 Mar 2021 – Premier League
West Bromwich Albion 0
Newcastle United 0

Last meeting at Newcastle United

12 Dec 2020 – Premier League
Newcastle United 2 (Almirón, Gayle)
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Furlong)

Last win

28 Apr 2018 – Premier League
Newcastle United 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Phillips)

Albion’s Record against Newcastle United