The FA Cup is renowned for throwing up some remarkable ties in the competition’s early stages and the game of this round comes to the Amex tomorrow evening.

After dumping Sunderland out of the Carling Cup earlier this season, Brighton & Hove Albion welcome more North East giants to the coast in the shape of high-flying Newcastle United for the fourth round of England’s premier cup contest.

Tickets have been moving fast for this one, with the Amex expected to house yet another capacity crowd for the most highly-hyped fixture at the stadium since it opened last summer.

The Seagulls fought hard to get to this point, overcoming a penalty shootout in Wrexham, and will want to make sure all that effort wasn’t wasted with a good performance here. Newcastle are coming off the back of a heavy defeat to Fulham in the Premier League last weekend so for Gus’ boys this is a decent chance to heap some more misery on the Magpies.

Ex-Toon winger Kazenga LuaLua is facing a race to be fit and should he be included, could be crucial to unlocking a Newcastle defence which has, at times, been watertight this campaign. Elusive Spanish midfielder Vicente though is expected to miss out yet again with a continuation of the injury problems plaguing his time in Sussex.

Seagulls defenders would be wise to keep an eye on the danger that the Toon possess on the flanks, with Hatem Ben Arfa in particularly devastating form, appearing to have fully recovered from the leg-break horror that almost ended his career.

One silver lining for the Albion backline though is the continued absence of Demba Ba due to international action in Africa. The often woeful Shola Ameobi shouldn’t cause Brighton’s outstanding young defender, Lewis Dunk, too many problems.

Newcastle are due a decent cup run having only made it through to the fifth round once in the last six years and Alan Pardew has his side well drilled. The potential absence of club-captain Fabricio Collocini will be welcome news though for Seagulls striker’s Ashley Barnes and Craig Mackail-Smith.

Albion are composed on the ball and have the potential to cause Newcastle problems should LuaLua feature, but the Magpies go into this tie firm favourites. Should they take down the Seagulls, don’t be surprised to see them featuring in the Wembley final this May.