Newcastle United have already made 'excellent' £20m signing - set for St James' Park appearance

Newcastle host the League Two side with Eddie Howe expected to heavily rotate his squad after a busy festive fixture schedule. The Magpies head into the FA Cup third-round tie at St James’ Park having won each of their last seven matches in all competitions.

But after a battling 2-0 win at Arsenal on Tuesday night, Howe is set to rest some key players. Alexander Isak won’t make the matchday squad against Bromley having suffered a slight hamstring issue at Arsenal. He is expected to be back in contention for Wednesday night’s match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’ Park.

With Callum Wilson out injured, Will Osula could be tasked with leading the line for The Magpies against Bromley. Osula’s only other start for Newcastle since his summer arrival from Sheffield United came against another League Two side in AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup third round in October.

Osula has often remained an unused substitute in recent matches despite Isak tiring. Instead of bringing on the 21-year-old, Howe has opted to play the likes of Anthony Gordon and Joe Willock up front for the closing stages of matches.

In the case of the 2-0 win at Arsenal, Howe opted to play without a striker in the closing stages and adopt a 5-5-0 formation.

Discussing a potential start for Osula against Bromley, Howe said: “Yeah, we could [start Osula].

“All options are available to me. I've got to make the right decision. Will is continuing to develop.

“It's been difficult the last few games because I've had to make decisions in running what to do in a couple of situations so against Tottenham we were winning and I decided to put a midfielder in Alex's position when Alex was fatigued and had to come off. That's because we were protecting the lead and I wanted someone with real experience who could manage the game for us. And it was very similar the other night against Arsenal where we were in a different phase of the game and I felt we needed real experience to help us navigate those last few minutes on the pitch.

“But Will is, on the other side, developing really well and if we were needing a goal, the decision would have been very different. I have to say in training, we've had a few 11 v 11 games, he's looked very sharp and scored goals. If he is involved this weekend then I'd expect him to play well.”

Lloyd Kelly could also be handed a start having been brought off the bench in each of Newcastle’s last two matches. The defender joined Newcastle on a free transfer in the summer but has seen his minutes limited so far this campaign.

A player who could make his full competitive debut for the club on Sunday is goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos. The Greek international joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest for £20million in the summer with Elliot Anderson heading in the opposite direction for £35million.

Vlachodimos’ only competitive appearance for Newcastle to date saw him come on as a substitute for the injured Martin Dubravka in the 1-0 Carabao Cup win over Wimbledon. While the 30-year-old has hardly featured for Newcastle so far, Howe has praised his impact on the training ground.

“He has been excellent behind the scenes,” Howe admitted. “He's a really, lovely lad, a really nice person, he's got a really nice way about him, very smiley, happy.

“But you can see he's driven and he's a vastly experienced goalkeeper, so I think he's added a lot to the training group. He's been actively involved in all the training that we've done and he's become a really well-liked member of the team, well-liked member of the goalkeeping team, but also the first team.

“So he's been excellent with his conduct around the building.”