DANNY Guthrie has revealed that Newcastle are formulating special plans to deal with the threat posed by Rory Delap’s throw-ins ahead of Saturday’s home game with Stoke.

Delap has been one of the successes of the season thanks to his incredible touchline talent, with eight of Stoke’s 15 Premier League goals having come as a direct consequence of one of his throw-ins.

The former Sunderland midfielder regularly hurls the ball more than 40 metres, with the missile-like trajectory combining with an unerring accuracy to produce a potent attacking weapon.

Newcastle’s players are aware of the threat, and while the likes of Roy Keane and Arsene Wenger have attempted to play down the importance of Delap’s delivery, the Magpies will spend the next two days working on a range of training-ground ploys to negate its impact.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Guthrie.

“We’ll be doing a bit of work to counter it because it’s got them a few points this season.

“It’s hard to practice against, because we don’t have anyone who can throw it in like Delap does.

“We can kick it in or hurl it in at a different angle, but it’s the trajectory of his throws that makes them so difficult to defend.

“They come in hard and low, and it’s hard to replicate that in training. We’ve been trying though and we’ll be coming up with a few plans.

We’re going to have to be careful.”

Other sides have concocted a series of ploys to deal with Delap, with mixed results.

Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes opted to punch on every occasion, only to injure one of his own players, Vedran Corluka, during a 2-1 defeat.

Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia chose a different option and relied on his centrehalves to clear the danger, but the Spaniard was forced to watch Kolo Toure and Mikael Silvestre dally as Ricardo Fuller scored the opener in Stoke’s 2-1 win.

Last weekend, Hull’s Boaz Myhill conceded a corner rather than give Delap the opportunity to unleash another throw-in, and while the tactic flies in the face of traditional footballing logic, Guthrie admits it is under consideration in the Newcastle dressing room.

“There was a lad at Tranmere (Dave Challinor) used to do something similar, but it’s not something you come up against very often,” he said.

“He drives it in against you, and you have to have a plan in your mind to deal with it.

“Everybody has made a big deal of it this season, so it’s not like we’re going into the game not expecting it.”

■ Joey Barton has targeted a mid-January return from injury, meaning he could be back in the Newcastle side by the time his former employers, Manchester City, visit St James’ Park on January 28.

Barton suffered knee ligament damage during November’s 2-2 draw with Wigan and is hoping to avoid surgery as he continues his rehabilitation.