EPL: MCFC vs NUFC

iveco SG

Date: 11 November 2006

Venue: City of Manchester stadium

KO Time: 1245 GMT

iveco SG

MAGPIES DUO COULD RETURN

Newcastle United manager Glenn Roeder could be boosted by the return of midfielder Kieron Dyer and striker Shola Ameobi ahead of the Barclays Premiership trip to Manchester City.

Dyer has recovered from the freak eye injury which interrupted his comeback from a long-standing hamstring problem, while Ameobi, who will undergo season-ending surgery on his damaged hip sooner rather than later, also trained on Thursday and is in with a chance.

However, Roeder was giving little away over striker Obafemi Martins' hamstring injury or whether or not goalkeeper Shay Given will return in place of Steve Harper (groin) after abdominal surgery.

Dietmar Hamann is set to return to Manchester Citys squad.

The veteran midfielder has not featured since limping out of the four-goal hammering at Wigan Athletic three weeks ago but has now recovered from a thigh injury and could be on the bench.

After drawing another blank at Charlton Athletic last weekend, Pearce may opt to shuffle his strikers, with the return of Bernardo Corradi a distinct possibility.

Manchester City (from): Weaver, Hart, Richards, Trabelsi, Onuoha, Dunne, Distin, Mills, Thatcher, Jordan, Sinclair, Barton, Reyna, Hamann, Johnson, Beasley, Dickov, Samaras, Corradi, Vassell.

Newcastle United (from): Harper, Srnicek, Given, Carr, Babayaro, Bernard, Moore, Bramble, Taylor, Ramage, Huntington, Parker, Emre, Solano, N'Zogbia, Milner, Butt, Duff, Dyer, Pattison, Ameobi, Martins, Rossi, Sibierski, Luque.

iveco SG

MANCHESTER CITY v NEWCASTLE UNITED, 0-0 Sat 11 Nov 2006

Manchester City extended their run of home clean sheets to six but failed to score the decisive goal to beat Newcastle United in a goalless draw at the City of Manchester Stadium.

The draw keeps the Magpies in the bottom three, but ends a run of three consecutive away defeats.

Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder named Kieron Dyer on the bench in the Barclays Premiership for the first time this season but there was no space in the squad for on-loan Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi.

Micah Richards was named in the City starting line-up 24 hours after the 18-year-old received his first England call, while Darius Vassell made his first start since August up front alongside Paul Dickov.

Former City striker Antoine Sibierski, on his return to Eastlands, made a chance for himself in the fourth minute, beating two defenders to get into the penalty area, but a great recovery by Dickov saw him muscled off the ball.

City had a great chance to open the scoring in the seventh minute, Joey Barton latching onto a through-ball from Hatem Trabelsi, beating his marker all too easily to get a sight of goal, but with Dickov in a prime position for a cut-back, Barton went for goal and dragged his shot wide.

Scott Parker came close a minute later, curling a shot from 25 yards that was only inches wide of Nicky Weaver's left post.

The best chance of the opening spell fell to City, once again through Barton.

The midfielder won the ball from Parker with a clever flick, before hitting a sweet half-volley which dipped and forced a smart save from Steve Harper to tip it wide, Richard Dunne nodding over from the resulting corner.

Makeshift left-back Peter Ramage was being tested against the combined threat of Richards and Trabelsi down City's right wing, but the youngster came to his side's rescue in the 23rd minute, sliding in to block Claudio Reyna's shot at the far post.

Twelve minutes later Ramage had the chance to be Newcastle's hero at the other end of the pitch. Emre Belozoglu's free-kick was nodded down to the full-back inside the area, but his shot went high and wide of the target.

Shola Ameobi, making what could be his last appearance before a hip operation, headed wide before Graham Poll blew time on a frenetic, but goalless first half.

The lively Richards shot over from distance at the start of the second period as City sought to build on yet another impressive defensive home display.

And Dickov almost did that in the 52nd minute. Finding himself one-on-one with Harper, he tried to curl the ball into the net, but Newcastle's stand-in goalkeeper pulled off a quality save to deny the veteran striker.

Ameobi was struggling to keep up with the pace of the game, and made way for Dyer in the 57th minute in a double substitution which also saw Charles N'Zogbia replace Damien Duff.

James Milner reverted to his more favoured right side after that and immediately Newcastle looked more settled, the winger firing over in the 59th minute.

City made their own changes a minute later, Georgios Samaras and Bernardo Corradi replacing Dickov and Reyna, and they too had an impact, Stephen Carr failing to track Corradi from Barton's free-kick, and the former Italy striker getting a free header which Carr would have been thankful to see fired straight into the arms of Harper.

And Corradi had another effort in the 65th minute, Trevor Sinclair making space for a cross which the striker met with a diving header that flashed past the left post.

The former Valencia forward made it a hat-trick of chances two minutes later, battling his way into the area to stab the ball between Harper's legs, but the keeper recovered to smoother the ball.

City thought they had taken the lead in the 70th minute, Samaras heading in from a yard out after Dunne had flicked on Barton's corner, but Poll disallowed the goal for a foul in the area.

Carr picked up a knock in the 74th minute after a tangle with Vassell and was replaced by Nolberto Solano to give Newcastle another attacking threat.

Trabelsi hit a dipping 30-yard shot which was not far over the crossbar and Solano landed a free-kick on the roof of Weaver's net as the game lost some of its zip in the final 15 minutes.

However, perhaps aware that a win would at least temporarily lift them out of the relegation zone, Newcastle began committing more bodies forward, and in the dying moments of the game, produced two rare pieces of quality to give Dyer the chance to be the day's hero.

First, Emre unselfishly laid the ball off to Dyer, who with the whole goal to aim at, found only Weaver's gloves. Then, after a flowing counter-attack, the England midfielder once again had a sight of goal, but was blocked by Richards as he shot.