Preston North End wing-men Chris Sedgwick and Ross Wallace are hoping to put a dent in the Magpies' quest for Championship silver this weekend.
The flying wingers are at St. James Park with the aim of getting back to winning ways against the division's pacesetters and the dynamic duo know that it won't be easy against the Championship's high-flyers.
"It's one I think everyone is looking forward to," Sedgwick told pne.com as the team prepared to head for the north east.
"They are a big team that has come down and it is a good chance for us to go up there and show what we can do. It's a big game at a big time of the season. I don't think you can look at it with fear, I think you have got to relish the chance to go up there and try and get a result. This league is such that it throws up coupon busting results every week and hopefully we can be one of them this week.
"They have been on fire, but runs come to an end. You only need look at Forest who have been on their 20-game unbeaten run and they have just had a few little slip-ups, so you never know, if we go up there and it's our day and everyone is at it you never know what can happen."
Sedgwick was amongst three Preston North End goalscorers at Derby's Pride Park on Tuesday night, but it was a disappointing evening as Darren Ferguson's side conceded five against the Rams. The Preston No.7 admits that the Lilywhites have plenty to put right this weekend.
He said: "We went in front and then they threw everything at us and they had a lot of corners and things and the pressure finally told. Once we got back into the game we looked the stronger of the teams and once we equalised I thought we might actually go on and win it but we gave a goal away straight after the kick-off and that killed us.
"At times we played quite well on Tuesday night, it was just the goals that we have away. If we defend like that we are always going to have trouble and that's not just the back four, it's a team effort. We have got to take the positives from the game and look to build on them."
One of those positives from the game was the performance of Sedgwick's South Yorkshire buddy Jon Parkin who has been linking up well with loan striker Danny Welbeck. Sedgwick is looking forward to seeing how Parkin compares to another former Preston loanee, Newcastle's Andy Carroll.
"Jon has come in and he has done really well in the games, he's scored a couple of goals and he has been linking up well with the rest of the team. He'll not complain about having someone like Danny doing his running, I think that's right up his street.
"A lot of good combinations have a big man and someone who plays off him and it seems to be working ok at the minute. Hopefully the more games they play together we can get some more goals from him.
"Jon's a big unit and if you can find him in the box he has got a good chance of sticking it away. You saw the same it in fits and starts when Andy Carroll was here. You could see what a good player he was and you could see that he was going to be a good player but it was just a case of trying to get it out of him, week-in-week-out. He's gone back to Newcastle and obviously he is doing really well.
"He's a big target man and you saw the goal he scored the other night against Swansea, he peels off on that back stick and gets some good headers in."
Preston North End's travelling army of support will be almost 3,000 fans strong at St James Park with many of them sporting bowler hats as PNE fans remember those that have passed away with Gentry Day. Sedgwick has around for previous gentry days and reckons that North End's fans will enjoy themselves in Newcastle.
Sedgwick said: "I'm sure they will have a great day out. It's a new ground for them to go to and we usually get a good following on the away support and they get behind us and we can hear them cheering us on. Hopefully they will give us a good backing when we go up there. I've never been myself, I've driven past it but I've never been in or played there so I am looking forward to it.
"There will be a cracking atmosphere inside the ground and these are the things you have got to look forward to. You'd rather play in front of a big hostile atmosphere rather than have nobody in there. They are in this league, they are not in the Premier League, they are a Championship club and we go up there hoping we can get a result."
One man who knows all about what football means to the folk of the north east is Sedgwick's team-mate on the opposite flank Ross Wallace. The Scottish winger spent two years with Sunderland and is predicting an electric atmosphere inside St. James Park come 3pm Saturday afternoon.
Wallace said: "It is one of the better stadiums in the Championship so we are looking forward to it. I've played there once or twice before, it's a good atmosphere, one which we are looking forward to and hopefully we will get a decent result. I've played there a few times. I played there for Celtic and Sunderland, it's alright, we are just looking forward to the game and nothing else.
"At the start of the game it is a nice atmosphere but once the game has started you are only concentrating on trying to get a result."
Wallace is anticipating a busy afternoon on the flanks with Chris Hughton's side a team who like to utilise the full width of the pitch but he's prepared to put in a shift in order to banish the memory of Tuesday night and send the PNE faithful home happy.
"Hopefully we can get the goal to make it worthwhile and get the result for them," Wallace said with a glint in his eye.
"We are going to have to be on our toes helping the full-backs out most of the game. So when we do get the ball it is important that we keep it.
"We will be looking for a reaction. We conceded too many goals but we scored three goals away from home so we should be doing better defensively but that comes from everyone."
