Newcastle United need striking improvement

Newcastle United have drawn four of their last five matches and they need to start turning more one-point hauls into three, starting with the trip to Birmingham City on Tuesday night.

The last two games from Alan Pardew's men could not have been more different. Their dramatic four-goal comeback to draw 4-4 with Arsenal at St James Park was followed up by a dour goalless draw with Blackburn and the visitors are 21/10 to win this time around.

Goalscoring looks like being their major down fall and it was very evident at Ewood Park as they dominated large portions of the game but could not get the breakthrough which could have given them their first win in five games.

The departure of Andy Carroll and subsequent injury to Shola Ameobi has left Pardew very light in the striking department. To compliment Leon Best, Nile Ranger and Peter Lovenkrands he moved to sign veteran forward Shefki Kuqi on a short-term deal last week.

After drawing a black at Blackburn, Kuqi and Ranger are pushing for recalls to the team as Newcastle look to end a sequence that has seen them not score more than one goal on the road since the end of October.

They are 7/1 to win 1-0 at St Andrews and 14/1 to secure a 2-0 victory.

Best is 7/1 to be the first goalscorer on Tuesday night while Lovenkrands is 15/2, Ranger 10/1 and Kuqi 19/2 to be celebrating first at St Andrews.

The statistics leading into this game suggest a draw as the four league meeting between Newcastle and Birmingham have all ended in stalemates, with the Blues not managing to win at home over Tuesday night's opponents since 1977.

Pardew remains without Hatem Ben Arfa, Ryan Taylor, Alan Smith and Dan Gosling, while Ameobi remains out with a fractured cheekbone and Stephen Ireland is not ready to make his debut since arriving on loan from Aston Villa.

Birmingham are likely to have former Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins among their ranks, with Alex McLeish having to choose between the Nigerian or Cameron Jerome.

The blossoming of Nikola Zigic has coincided with two successive victories for Birmingham that means they could leapfrog Newcastle into the top half of the table with a win.

Newcastle defender Mike Williamson will be given the daunting task of combating the giant Serbian and Pardew is confident his defender is up to the task.

"We had a similar problem at Blackburn with Christopher Samba. Samba is 6ft 5in and very, very strong physically at set-plays," said the Newcastle boss.

"Zigic is the same, but Mike Williamson will be tagged to look after him and I have no doubts.

"Mike is very, very strong himself."