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NEWCASTLE UNITED V BIRMINGHAM CITY
LAST TIME:
Last time we met was in the Premiership. Our final home game of last season, a game in which victory would assure us a Champions League spot and 3rd place in the Premiership. In the end we won 1-0 thanks to a Hugo Viana free kick on the edge of the area which sparked celebrations and relief as we assured ourselves a spot in next season Champions League (qualifiers). Relief because we'd not been in good form going into the game, having lost 3 and drawn 1 from our last 5 games (only win came against Mackems at Stadium of Nationwide Plight) and that poor form allowed Chelsea and Liverpool to both get within a point of us which meant we could have finished 5th and out of next seasons Champions League. But we won, they both lost and the Toon Army could celebrate once more. "Geordies in the Champions League again!"
TOP TEN:

Last ten times we've met Birmingham City FC:

10. 3rd May 2003, 1-0 win @ St James' Park
9. 28th September 2002, 2-0 win @ St Andrews
8. 29th November 2000, 2-1 loss @ St Andrews
7. 12th October 1999, 2-0 loss @ St Andrews
6. 28th March 1993, 2-2 draw @St James' Park
5. 4th November 1992, 3-2 win @ St Andrews
4. 12th April 1986, 4-1 win @ St James' Park
3. 9th November 1985, 1-0 win @ St James' Park
2. 20th February 1980, 0-0 draw @ St James' Park
1. 29th September 1989, 0-0 draw @ St Andrews
MATCH INFO:
This is a new friendly tournament planned by the Premier League which kicks off this summer. It'll be a 4 team tournament each year and to start things off, the first 4 teams are Birmingham City, Chelsea and Newcastle United from the Premiership and Malaysia's national team.

The 4 teams will do battle against each other between the 24th and 27th of July. We face Birmingham City on Thursday the 24th of July while Chelsea face the Malaysian national team on the 25th. Then the two losers of those matches face each other on the 26th of July in a bronze medal play off while the winners go head to head on the 27th in the final of the friendly tournament. All games are scheduled to be played at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in Malaysia.

It's not known yet if the Premiership plans to always send 3 teams to face a foreign opponent or not, and it's not known if it'll always be in Malaysia or just somehwere in Asia as the Premiership continues to build up it's popularity and profile.

Meanwhile, the club is looking to get local companies from the North East to travel with us to Malaysia and help build the area's reputation over there and try to froge some ties with the area to expand and build up the North East and make it's presence known for tourism and commercial gain. Seems a great idea, the Toon's been looking to build and expand into the Asian market for a year or so now as we look to open ties there for money making idea's. It's a great place for this sort of activity, Man Utd's been doing it successfully for a few yars now with Real Madrid's recent buy of David Beckham being used to help Real Madrid break into the market.
LAST SEASON:
Last season saw Newcastle finish 3rd in the Premiership behind Man Utd and Arsenal, just ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool as we improved on last seasons league finish of 4th. Birmingham City were newly promoted last season, breaking through to the Premiership after play off success. They finished the season brilliantly by their standards, survival was their aim and they did more than that, finishing a very repectable 13th in the league ahead of teams considered better than them with more quality options in their squad like Leeds United and relegated West Ham United.

In the domestic cup competitions the Toon went out early both times. A League Cup exit was in the 3rd Round from fellow Premiership outfit Everton in a penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw. We went out in the 3rd Round as well in the FA Cup after a disappointing loss to first division side Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 at Molineux. The Brum meanwhile were knocked out early in both competitions too as they went out rather embarrassingly to Preston NE 2-0 at home in the 2nd Round of the League Cup while in the FA Cup they, like us, went out in the 3rd Round as they lost 3-1 away to Fulham.

Finally, The Brum weren't involved in European football last season, we were though and we had a rather memorable campaign, doing ourselves and England proud. We started off in the qualifiers and went through to the competition proper after a 5-0 aggregate win over Bosnia's Zeljeznicar. We broke records as we progressed through the 1st group stage of the Champions as no team had ever lost the first 3 games and still qualified, but we did it with wins over Italian Champions Juventus and (at the time) defending UEFA Cup champions Feyenoord with a win over Dynamo Kiev inbetween. The second group stage saw us defeat Bayer Leverkusen both times while Barca defeated us twice and although we lost to Inter at home, we were unlucky to only come away with a point against Inter at the San Siro as we exited the competition with heads held high at the second group stage.
PREDICTION:
I think we're bound to be too strong for them, like we were in both league games last season as we did the double over them. Birmingham look like they'll be a little stronger this season as they look set to add players like Dutch International striker Pierre Van Hooijdonk and England Under 21's Inertantional David Dunn to their squad (still to be seen if either move is completed). Meanwhile we've added England International midfielder Lee Bowyer to our team and are looking at a few others as we look to strengthen the side in a bid to bring home silverware next season as well as challenge for the league title much more seriously. I think we'll end up beating them comfortably in the game, though maybe the scoreline wont show that? Prediction is a 2-0 win to the Toon with a goal in both halves.