The official reason why Blackburn Rovers v Newcastle United was delayed at Ewood Park

Newcastle United's FA Cup fifth-round clash at Blackburn Rovers has been delayed by 15 minutes.

This is to allow supporters to enter Ewood Park for the match. Kick-off was originally scheduled for 7:45pm kick-off but was pushed back to 8pm.

A Blackburn Rovers statement read: "Kick-off has been delayed by 15 minutes until 8pm in order to allow as many supporters as possible to enter the ground."

The decision to delay the game was made by Blackburn with Newcastle set to be backed by around 7,000 away fans at Ewood Park. Due to the number of supporters travelling and the issues faced by Wrexham fans getting into the stadium during the previous round at Blackburn, Newcastle made the decision not to conduct away ticket spot checks at Ewood Park.

The Magpies will be hoping to progress to the quarter-final of the competition for only the second time since 2006. They are the only Premier League side away to lower league opposition in the last 16 of the competition and go into the match having beaten Sunderland 3-0 and Fulham 2-0 in the third and fourth rounds respectively.

Newcastle have named a strong starting line-up for the match, making five changes from the side that were beaten 4-1 at Arsenal on Saturday.