Newcastle United vs Cheltenham Town Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Newcastle look to be heading in the right direction after a shaky start to the new Championship season. They lost their opening two games against Fulham and Huddersfield, but have responded well with a 4-1 home win against Reading and narrow 1-0 win at Bristol City at the weekend. The League Cup isn’t likely to be a massive priority this season but Newcastle do have some real strength in depth for a Championship side and there’s no reason why they can’t have a decent run in the competition.

Cheltenham will head to St James’ with no pressure and little expectation but it should prove a nice little earner for them. Whether they can compete with Newcastle on the pitch seems pretty unlikely. They lie in 22nd in League Two having failed to win any of their opening 4 league games. They did draw 3 of those matches but were beaten 1-0 at home by Doncaster at the weekend. They even lost their final 4 pre-season friendlies but the one ray of light so far did come in this competition when they beat Charlton 1-0 in the 1st Round.

They were at home on that occasion though and this is clearly going to be a much tougher task. Rafa Benitez is yet to definitively decide on his first choice eleven you feel. So the players that come in for Newcastle will be fired up to make an impression and they should have far too much quality for their League Two opponents.

Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is among those poised to come in after he finally completed his suspension at the weekend and, with the likes of Ayoze Pérez for company, Newcastle should bag several goals here and backing Newcastle -1.5 Asian Handicap at 1.975 looks a pretty safe bet.