Newcastle had the courtesy of playing their last game on Friday, which should give them the extra edge over Bolton, a team that were beaten at home by Fulham on Saturday.

The Magpies continued their brilliant form with a hard-fought victory over Swansea at Liberty Stadium, proving they are now serious contenders for a top 4 finish.

Alan Pardew’s side may have been outplayed by the Welsh side, but they produced another mature performance and recorded a 2-0 win thanks to a brace from Papiss Demba Cisse.

Newcastle are now on a four-match winning run and they sit just three points behind third-placed Tottenham, so odds of 1.62 (5/8) offered on home win at Paddy Power do look tempting.

The Magpies face a difficult battle for Champions League qualification, but with Betfair paying 13.30 (123/10) on Newcastle to achieve a top 4 finish, they could be worth a shot.

Fabrizio Coloccini, Danny Guthrie, Sammy Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands, Steven Taylor, Leon Best and Sylvain Marveaux remain sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Krul – Simpson, Perch, Williamson, Santon – Gutierrez, Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa – Ba, Cisse.

Bolton missed an excellent opportunity to boost their survival hopes as they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Fulham at their Reebok Stadium.

The heavy loss served as a major blow following the three-match winning run in the Premiership, but the good news is that all their relegation rivals also failed to pick up any points from weekend’s games.

Nevertheless, the Trotters could easily slip into the bottom three if they lose at St James Park, and matching in-form Newcastle could prove to be a difficult task.

Seeing that Magpies kept three clean sheets in last four games and that Owen Coyle’s side failed to score in their last game, backing Bolton not to score at odds of 2.50 (3/2) offered by BetVictor look like the right thing to do.

Gretar Steinsson is expected to return to the side after recovering from injury, but Muamba, Gardner, Holden, Lee and Mears remain unavailable.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Bogdan – Steinsson, Wheater, Ream, Ricketts – Reo-Coker, Pratley – Miyaichi, M. Davies, Petrov – K. Davies.