AFTER two straight defeats to remind Newcastle United’s players that nothing will come easy this season, goalkeeper Karl Darlow hopes there is no unhappy return to the City Ground on Friday night.

The former Nottingham Forest shot-stopper will make his first appearance back at his old home in a Magpies shirt along with skipper Jamaal Lascelles.

Both players moved in a combined £5m deal in August 2014, even though it was not until a year later when they left Forest behind for good because they spent that season on loan.

Darlow and Lascelles have established themselves in the Newcastle first team under Rafael Benitez and are expected to be in the starting line-up when they head back to Nottingham.

Darlow said: “It’s going to be an emotional night for me, and I can’t wait. It’s a big game for me, but at the end of the day it’s three points on offer, and we need to make sure we go and put on another professional away performance to put last weekend’s defeat behind us.

“We’ve been very good away from home this season, and hopefully we can come away from there with another good performance and bounce back from what happened against Blackburn.”

Darlow was between the posts last weekend when Blackburn left St James’ Park with three points after bringing to an end a nine-match winning run from the Championship leaders.

Further frustration was felt on Tuesday when they lost to Hull City on penalties in the EFL Cup quarter-final, when the 26-year-old was left out to give summer signing Matz Sels an outing.

But Darlow, from Northampton originally, will be back in goal against Forest. He said: “I came through the youth system there and they did an awful lot for me as a player. I’m massively appreciative of what they did for me at the time.

“It was massive for me to be able to get into the team there and be their number one for a number of seasons. They’re a fantastic club, and I can’t talk highly enough about them.

“I was 15 when I joined there, so to battle my way through to become the number one there was a big thing for me. I’m very grateful for what that club did for me, and it will be a good game on Friday.”

Sels, who started the season as Newcastle’s No 1, failed to make the most of his opportunity at Hull when he was at fault for gifting Rob Snodgrass with the chance to equalise and take the game to penalties.

The Belgian international has been criticised by a number of fans already and Tuesday did not help his cause to win them back over.

Benitez, speaking before Tuesday’s defeat, is urging him to stay positive. The Newcastle boss said: "I will say he is training well. The national team has been positive for him, because he has gone there when he has not been playing. He was training and motivated. We're working really hard with the keepers.”

The goalkeeper area is not really a concern for Benitez at the moment, with Rob Elliot also nearing a comeback, but he could soon be looking for a new coach.

It has emerged Heart of Midlothian have identified Newcastle’s Ian Cathro as a top contender for the manager’s job at Tynecastle.

Hearts are braced to lose Robbie Neilson to MK Dons before the weekend and have already started to consider alternatives.

Cathro, 30, was head of Dundee United’s youth academy at the age of 22 when Hearts’ director of football was in charge at Tannadice. He headed over to Europe for spells with Rio Ave and Valencia before Steve McClaren lured him to Tyneside in 2015.

Benitez kept on Cathro after taking charge on a permanent basis in the summer but Newcastle are unlikely to stand in his way of becoming the Scottish Premier League’s youngest ever manager.