Ferguson seeking sixth win on spin

The young Magpies, currently sitting in second place of Group G, take on their Blues counterparts at Liberty Way (kick-off 7pm GMT) aiming to secure a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions to boost their hopes of advancing into the last 16.

Newcastle have already faced Birmingham twice this term, winning 4-0 on both occasions and Ferguson, son of former Newcastle forward Duncan, is hopeful United's second-string can extend their impressive form.

The 18-year-old forward told nufc.co.uk: "We're getting good results and all the lads are confident that we can get something out of this season. We're in a good place, feeling good, and we are aiming to try and win the cup game to help us progress.

"This is an important game as a win gives us a great chance of qualifying. It can also give us more games to play and more experience against different teams, who we have faced in the group so far.

"Although Birmingham have been knocked out, it's still nice to get a result and I'm sure they will give their absolute best. We're expecting them to be on their best form and we're expecting to be on ours. Hopefully, we can get another result against them which we have proved in the past two fixtures.

"As a football team, you've always got to expect the unexpected and have to give an amount of respect to the opposition. We've got to be trying to work and earn the right to play, which the manager has told us.

"There's no taking your foot of the gas, especially in football, and you always have to give 100 per cent so it will be just another day at the office."

Newcastle's youngsters claimed their third successive Premier League 2 win last week following a 4-1 away victory against Reading, moving into the Division Two play-off spots in the process.

Ferguson, who netted United's third against the Royals, expressed his delight in netting in consecutive matches after notching his first Magpies goal against Ashington last month, and bids to add to his goalscoring tally during the latter half of the 2021/22 campaign.

"To get the result like we did against Reading was great after not playing for a while," the Liverpool-born teenager added. "We tried to dust off the cobwebs and get back into the swing of things which I think we did really well. It was a great performance and the team gelled really well so we were very happy. 

"It was a nice individual achievement to score my first league goal for Newcastle. It was a great honour and to get a good win on top of that made it even better.

"Being a striker, it's important to try and get goals. Making that transition from youth level to under-23s can be difficult sometimes and at the start of the season, I was working a lot of hours.

"It was a big learning curve and as the season has gone on, I'm starting to get more confident in front of goal and the last two games have been good examples of that. I want to keep that flow going and hopefully I can reciprocate that on Friday."