Five players who have represented Newcastle and Preston

An EFL Cup quarter-final place and an even more commanding lead at the top of the Championship are fantastic incentives for the Magpies to maintain their recent momentum.

And although United do not have much of a recent history with Preston, several notable modern-day players have ensured there is a link between the two clubs.

Here are five men who have called both St James’ Park and Deepdale home.

Andy Carroll

Newcastle’s most successful academy graduate in recent times- Carroll made his Toon debut against Palermo in 2006, before spending the 2007/08 season on loan at Preston.

He made 11 appearances, which included a red card against Scunthorpe before his first English league goal came against Leicester.

He scored his first Newcastle goal on his first home start against West Ham in January 2009. However it was in the Championship where he made his mark scoring 17 league goals.

The following season he was given the number nine shirt by Chris Hughton. Carroll scored 11 goals and made his senior England debut, prior to his £35 million to Liverpool in January 2011.

Since then injuries have plagued his career and prevented him from making the most of his obvious talent, and he is currently unavailable for West Ham.

Paul Huntington

Another Newcastle academy graduate, Huntington made his debut in 2005 and made 11 appearances for Newcastle.

His solitary goal came in a 3-2 victory at White Hart Lane under Glenn Roeder.

In 2007 Huntington joined Leeds, where he stayed until 2010, before moves to Stockport County and Yeovil Town.

After Yeovil, Huntington moved to Preston in 2012 where he has made over 100 appearances- most recently coming on as an injury time sub in Saturday’s win over Norwich.

Huntington could well make an appearance against his former employers tonight.

Ian Bogie

A product of the famous Wallsend Boys Club, Bogie made 14 appearances for Newcastle – most notably, as a deputy to Paul Gascoigne.

Moving to Preston in 1989, he made 79 appearances, scoring 12 goals, for North End.

Moves to Milwall and Leyton Orient followed, before making over 150 appearances for Port Vale.

Bogie returned to the North East to finish his career with Gateshead in 2007, where he was manager until 2012.

John Anderson

Anderson was on the book of West Brom for three years before joining Preston in 1979. Over three years he made 51 appearances before joining Newcastle in 1982.

Anderson made 299 appearances, scoring 14 teams. For his country he made 16 appearances, scoring once. Anderson, now works for BBC Radio Newcastle covering matches.

Neil McDonald

Another product of Wallsend Boys Club, McDonald made his debut for Newcastle in 1983 and over a five year period played 180 times scoring 24 times.

After that McDonald played for Everton- where he was player of the year for the 1990-91 season, Oldham and Bolton, before finishing his career at Preston 1998.

Since retirement McDonald has family been assistant to former England manager Sam Allardyce, at Bolton, Blackburn and West Ham.

McDonald went on to manage Preston’s rivals: Blackpool in 2015-16. Currently McDonald is assistant to Mike Phelan at Hull.