Preview: West Ham vs N'castle

Newcastle will travel to under-fire West Ham as Alan Curbishley endures the threat of the Hammers boo boys. Kevin Keegan brings a side in a rich vein of form, hoping to continue their superb run at Upton Park.

Dean Ashton looks set to be ready to return for the Hammers, but Anton Ferdinand could be out through injury again.

Keegan has only minor knocks to concern him, Emre (calf), Stephen Carr (hamstring), Claudio Cacapa (groin), Peter Ramage (knee) and James Milner (foot) are all nearing a return while Shay Given is out with Harper set to take his spot again.

Squads

West Ham (from): Green, Pantsil, McCartney, Tomkins, Neill, Faubert, Solano, Noble, Parker, Ljungberg, Boa Morte, Sears, Cole, Zamora, Upson, Ferdinand, Collison, Mullins, Ashton, Walker, Spector.

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

Keegan wants a better finish

"We set a target six or seven games ago to win the mini-league in the bottom half of the table, and that's still our intention.

"That's the only league we can win - we cannot get into Europe, we cannot get into the top four or anything like that, but we are trying to win that mini-league, and that will allow us to finish 12th at least."