Newcastle United’s 52,000-capacity St James’ Park stadium awaits for Norwich City Under-23s this evening (7pm KO).

The young Canaries haven’t played since August 25, when they beat Stoke 2-0 at Carrow Road to bounce back from losing their opening PL2 matches to Middlesbrough and Brighton.

Matt Gill’s team won a friendly at Lowestoft Town 3-0 last Tuesday to keep them ticking over, thanks to goals from Savvas Mourgos, Adam Phillips and Devonte Aransibia.

“The lads are looking forward to it, hopefully they’re as up for a game at Northumberland FC, as they were last year, to at St James’ Park,” said Gill.

“They’ve got to get into that mentality of regardless where you’re going to play they have to make sure they compete and have the same mentality. It’s a good game for them to be involved in, of course it is, but they need to treat it like any other to make sure that they get the opportunity to play in stadiums like that regularly.”

More: Matt Gill pleased to see Norwich City Under-23 starlets developing winning habit against Lowestoft

One player who will be hoping to feature again is forward Kieran Higgs, who sparkled in the win at Lowestoft. The 17-year-old signed professional terms this summer, having bounced back from a serious knee injury when he was younger, to score six goals in 24 games for the U18s last season.

“Higgsy has applied himself extremely well,” Gill added. “He was out for a while during his scholarship years, he’s come back, has got an outstanding attitude, he’ll work his socks off and make mediocre balls good ones, so as a midfield player you’d love him.

“He worked tirelessly for the team, a really unselfish performance, that’s typical of him every day in training, let alone the games.”