Sixteen days without a game has served to only heighten the anticipation for the arrival of tonight's high-flying opponents Newcastle United.

Skipper Callum Davidson made a return from injury in our last game all those hours ago in the disappointing defeat at Vicarage Road and he told pne.com that the mid-break training camp in Spain was a boost for the team spirit

"It was good, it was tough and there was nice warm weather but it was a good trip and a lot of good work was done. I wouldn't say we refreshed the batteries but it was good training on decent pitches and good weather so it makes it alot easier and it was good getting all the boys together. I thought it was an excellent idea and we can focus on Newcastle now.

"When go away together the building of team spirt is one of the good parts about it, it gets the lads together and it's a big part of football. It almost worked for Ireland last week and it's big part of the team at Preston."

The visit of Newcastle will see Callum and a number of fellow first teamers reacquaint themselves with former PNE loanee Andy Carroll. The big striker spent the first half of the 2007/08 season at Deepdale, bagging a single goal along the way, and the skipper says he's beginning to realise his potential.

"He's a good player and he seems to have found his feet, he has great ability and he had that when he was here so he's going to be a tough opponent to play against."

The 20-year-old has been the focal point of the attack in the absence of Shola Ameobi and can call upon an exceptionally experienced midfield to supply him. Many observers in the media thought the Geordies would struggle this season but the North End number three wasn't one of them.

"I never thought they'd struggle once, you just look at the players they've got and you'd be disappointed if they'd struggle. I think they'll go up automatically with the players they've got and the money they can spend. If you look at their budget compared to ours we're not even in the same league so I don't think they'll have any problems, their only problems will be good problems.

"They play a triangle in the middle which allows the midfielders like Nolan to push forward; he's a proven premiership player and if you're going to struggle with a team like that there's something wrong and I can't see how they'll struggle."

The midfield will be a key battleground as ever this evening and North End will have a new man in midfield to try and swing the game PNE's way. Michael Tonge signed on until the end of December last week and Callum was delighted with the new arrival.

"Michael has great ability and is really good on the ball, hopefully he's someone who'll get on the ball for us and try and dictate the play. Obviously with Barry being out for a while it was only a matter of time before we got somebody in of Barry's ilk to replace him and he's a very good replacement."

At the start of the season this was one of the games fans were looking forward to most but according to Callum it's just 'another game'.

"We're treating it just like any other game really but we need the additional three points after the bad performance against Watford and we would want to make sure we put it right tonight whether it was against Newcastle or anybody else. I enjoy the mid-week games at Deepdale and it's one of the things I look forward to and I look forward to this one tonight."