
Elano led Newcastle's back-line a It will be Sam Alladyce's first Tyne/Wear derby as a manager, although he knows the ferocity of the event from his days as a Sunderland player.
And how he needs something out of the game to get his bandwagon back on track.
Nicky Butt is backing the boss and he sees the derby as the perfect way to banish the frustration of the 2-1 horror show at struggling Reading, and the 4-1 defeat to Portsmouth.
Butt, however, will miss the match because he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season on Saturday.
Nicky Butt: "It's a derby and all qualities to a point go out of the window.
"In the first 20 minutes you've got to give it your all, get stuck in and fight.
"The way you've played over the last few weeks goes out of the window, it's just a one-off game, so the bigger the game the better."
"It was a disastrous 12 minutes on Saturday. The first goal (from Noe Pamarot) was a wonder goal, that can happen to any team, but the two after that were really slack.