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Bassong boost as Taylor sits
Newcastle United, 17:11, December 4, 2008 ,
Newcastle stars Steven Taylor and Mark Viduka are expected to start on the bench when United take on Stoke City on Saturday.
Magpies manager Joe Kinnear is set to name an unchanged team for the clash with Tony Pulis' relegation battlers at St James's Park on Saturday.
England Under-21 skipper Taylor is chomping at the bit to get back in but he can't displace any of the current back four who were solid in the 0-0 draw on Teesside last week.
Both Taylor and Viduka are likely to be on the bench, but Shola Ameobi and Damien Duff are out with injuries they picked up in training last week.
Kinnear is expected to say 'same again' to the 11 players who started last week's goalless draw at the Riverside, which means a vote of confidence for Sebastien Bassong.
"We do have Steven Taylor fit again and I have spoken to him about the situation and he fully understands," said Kinnear.
"One thing we could do is to play Fabricio Coloccini as a holding midfielder to accommodate Tails, but it would be wrong to do that.
"As far as Seba Bassong is concerned, in my opinion he was probably our best player in our last two games with Chelsea and Middlesbrough."