Slaven Bilic gives his verdict on Steve Bruce's Newcastle United

Steve Bruce’s side take on Bilic’s West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup fifth-round tie at The Hawthorns tonight.

Newcastle go into the game on the back of a run of one win from 10 Premier League games – and four matches without a goal.

Championship leaders West Brom, meanwhile, were beaten by Wigan Athletic at the weekend.

Bilic told Birmingham Live: “They’re a dangerous prospect – they’re a Premier League side. They’re where we want to be – they’re one level higher than us.

“At the same time, they have a team of strengths and weaknesses. They’re not a perfect team. They’re sitting pretty much OK-ish in the table.

"They’re a very solid team. They’re not scoring – they haven’t scored in their last four games – but they’re very hard to beat, and they’ve made some tremendous results, especially away at big clubs.

“If you add to that that after many years they have also a good cup run, it shows that this season is pretty much good. Steve Bruce deserves big credit for that.

“We’re at the top of the Championship, and we have to compete with a team that’s in the bottom half of the table in the Premier League.

“It’ll be very interesting to see how big the gap is, if anything, in quality. We’re in a good mood. We’re positive. We’re winning most of the games, so it also makes you a better team and better players.”