Preview: Newcastle vs S'land

The 139th Tyne-Wear derby will take place at 1:30 on Sunday, as Sunderland travel the short trip to St James' Park to take on Newcastle. The two sides look safe from relegation on part of a two part special on 'Derby Sunday'.

With both sides winning three matches in a row , they have ensured safety in the Premiership for yet another season to come. A win for Sunderland could even see them climb above Newcastle in the standings, while a win for Kevin Keegan’s side could see them close the gap to Tottenham.

Team News

Keegan is without Belozoglu Emre, Claudio Cacapa, Shay Given and Tim Krul. However James Milner, Stephen Carr and Shola Ameobi are all close to being fit for the game and could feature.

Sunderland are without Darren Ward, and Dickson Etuhu are all out with knee injuries. Dwight Yorke and Russ Wallace could make comebacks after recovering from injury.

Keegan: this derby is special

"Derby matches are very special, and if you ever see them as not being very special, that's when you get the shocks.

"If the players don't realise already what derby matches mean from previous clubs, then you would be disappointed.

"But the good thing for us is we have a lot of experienced players and if the Michael Owens and the Mark Vidukas - I could go on - don't understand how big this game is, nobody does."

Squads

Newcastle (from): Harper, Forster, Beye, Enrique, Taylor, Faye, Edgar, Butt, N'Zogbia, Duff, Barton, Geremi, Owen, Smith, Martins, Viduka, Carroll.

Sunderland (from): Gordon, Fulop, Bardsley, Collins, McShane, Nosworthy, Evans, Higginbotham, Harte, Whitehead, Reid, Leadbitter, Edwards, Miller, Richardson, O'Donovan, Jones, Waghorn, Murphy, Stokes, Chopra, Prica.