Minute-by-minute updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off at Villa ParkFootball Weekly: The new Mou, Emery on the brink and fishEmail Simon here or tweet @Simon_Burnton 7.04pm GMT
The team news is in! Tom Heaton, Conor Hourihane and Jack Grealish are in for Vila, Ciaran Clark passes his fitness test for Newcastle:
Aston Villa: Heaton, Guilbert, Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Hourihane, El Ghazi, Wesley, Grealish. Subs: Lansbury, Nakamba, Trezeguet, Nyland, Kodjia, Elmohamady, Hause.Newcastle: Dubravka, Fernandez, Clark, Dummett, Yedlin, Hayden, Shelvey, Willems, Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Joelinton. Subs: Schar, Carroll, Gayle, Krafth, Darlow, Atsu, Matthew Longstaff.Referee: Lee Mason.This is your #AVFC team to face Newcastle United! Presented by @eToro.#AVLNEW pic.twitter.com/R5Ke59A3fo TEAM-NEWSThis is how #NUFC line-up at Villa Park this evening! ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/1f5FT0y8tE 5.11pm GMT
Hello world!
It’s the Steve Bruce derby, and the Newcastle manager’s first return to Villa Park since this cabbage was thrown at him during a 3-3 draw against Preston last October in what turned out to be his last game in the Villa Park dugout.
It was one of the most unsavoury times of my career. I thought it was a ball to begin with, it was a big old thing. How the fan got it into the stadium I don’t know. It didn’t miss be my much. The fans can throw some things, but a cabbage? I went the next day so I didn’t have time to get angry about it. “I got criticised [by Villa fans], but for 18 months only
Manchester City scored more goals than us ... they’re a difficult lot. Great club, great support with great history, but it was in a mess.
It was arguably my most difficult job, even more difficult than this. We didn’t know if we were going to get paid in May and June. It was practically close to the wall. It never got that far but there was a threat at the end of the month that we couldn’t pay the wages. It was the worst and probably the most difficult six weeks after the play-off game, it was unrivalled from where we were. To be fair to the chief executive at the time he had kept it quiet for three or four months. We were aware we couldn’t bring anyone in but financially we didn’t realise the enormity of it until he got the sack. It was a really difficult time. Then...the new owners came in and everything changed very, very quickly. If they hadn’t come in so quickly I would have feared for a great club the way it was, because we were practically bust.
I thought it was a disgrace. You don’t want to see that in the ground. I said that at the time. I said when I took the job that I have an awful lot of respect for what he has done in management but, more importantly, for how he is as a man as well. This season, if you look at Newcastle at the start, there were a lot of questions about the club and where it was going. But Steve has gone in and done what he does best - got them organised. They’ve got pace and power up front. They are winning games - they’ve won the last couple - and they beat
Manchester United at home as well. They are in a good run of form at the moment.
Related: Aston Villa v Newcastle United: match preview