Newcastle United will be looking to make it three wins on the spin this weekend as we travel to Ipswich Town, with Eddie Howe eager to build on recent victories over Leicester in the league and Brentford in the cup.
Our hopes of doing so have been handed an early boost ahead of Saturday’s game in Suffolk, with Ipswich set to be without the man whose been involved in 44% of their league goals this season…
Newcastle have had suspension issues of their own over the last week – Joelinton, Bruno and Schar all have one-game bans on the horizon- but Ipswich will be without their top scorer and star player for Saturday’s clash at Portman Road.
After picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the post-match scuffle that followed Ipswich’s 2-1 win at Wolves last weekend, **Liam Delap** will miss the game via an automatic one-game ban.
Delap has not only been a real handful for Premier League centre-backs so far this term and the shining light in a tough start for the newly promoted Tractor Boys, but he’s backed that up with goals, scoring six times in 16 appearances so far.
Considering his influence and the fact Ipswich are yet to win a home game all season following promotion, his absence can only boost our chances of another win and will be music to the ears of Fabian Schar and Dan Burn.
Newcastle’s suspension woes could get worse
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Joelinton is the only player ruled out of Saturday’s game through suspension after his fifth booking of the season in last weekend’s 4-0 win over Leicester, but we have two more at risk in Fabian Schar and Sandro Tonali.
Should either receive a yellow card in any of our next three league games against Ipswich, Aston Villa or Man Utd, they too will face a one-match ban.
Sean Longstaff will be back this weekend after suspension kept him out of Wednesday’s cup game, but the 3-1 win over Brentford came at a cost for Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar.
Both were booked in the first half of our quarter-final win and will miss the first leg of our upcoming semi-final tie as a result.