Steve Bruce’s side displayed a similarly lacklustre performance like those seen previously against Tottenham and Brighton tonight against a positive, inform Newport County side.
Bruce surprised many fans with the strong side that he started with, playing the likes of Miguel Almiron and Ryan Fraser, with the firepower of Joelinton and Callum Wilson to be called upon when needed.
After a 7-0 thrashing of Morecambe (who are also League two calibre) in the previous round of the Carabao cup, it would have been hoped by many that Newcastle could display a similar performance against a side of the similar level, but this would be far from the reality.
The game began with Newport playing on the front foot and looking to fluster their higher league opponents from early on, and this was seen to pay off when the inform Tristan Abrahams put the exiles ahead in the fifth minute after an error from Goalkeeper Mark Gillespie.
From this point onwards Newport continued to create chances and put the Newcastle back line under pressure, with Padraig Amond striking over the bar from close range, enforcing their intent to continue to trouble Newcastle rather than looking to gold onto their lead.
However, one bright speak of the first half was Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy who a few long-range efforts that troubled Newport Goalkeeper Nick Townsend, however never looked like they were dangerous enough to ever find the back of the net.
As well as Murphy’s efforts, the Magpies’ biggest chance came when Fraser was played through by Sean Longstaff, and despite his effort being stopped by Townsend’s leg, Almiron then had a follow up attempt also saved by the leg of the ‘Keeper.
Despite it not being very hard to do, the second half was better for the toon, as they looked to kick on and seek the equaliser they needed to avoid an embarrassing early exit.
Jacob Murphy continued to impress, constantly being one of the only players to drive forwards at pace with the ball and pin Newport back in their half, however it was beginning to become apparent that Bruce’s tactical approach needed to change to ensure the squad would carry more of a threat.
Because of this, Bruce made the change to bring on the firepower of Wilson and Joelinton to add some pace to the direct approach the Magpies were already taking. And from this Newcastle instantly looked to pose more of a treat, and had Newport constantly dropping deeper into their own half as the game passed by.
And finally, the attacking approach paid off in the 87th minute as Jonjo Shelvey picked up the ball in the Newport penalty area, turned his defender with some good skill, and curled a fantastic strike into the top right corner of Townsend’s goal to draw the tie level.
From then on in it was Newcastle who were seeking to find the winner with a late flurry of chances, however the nerve of the exiles defence stayed strong as they played out the remainder of the final minutes with a solid defence display to keep out the black and white barrage.
This then led the tie to go to the lottery of a penalty shootout and kept Newport confident that they almost had a 50/50 chance of being in the hat for the final 8.
With the first 2 penalties being dispatched, Newcastle’s £40 million-man Joelinton stepped up, and had his weak attempt saved by Townsend, followed by Abrahams netting his attempt to give the exiles the front foot in the shootout.
Both sides then netted all their attempts up until Newport’s Ryan Taylor stepped up with the scores at 3-3 in the shootout with the chance to give them a 4th, however he saw his penalty saved by the feet of Gillespie, and levelling out the scores in the shootout.
Murphy and Matthew Dolan then took their chances and set the tie up at a 4-4 sudden death situation.
Newcastle’s Longstaff buried his attempt leaving Brandon Cooper needing to score to round of his brilliant display. Cooper stepped up and attempted to hit the ball hard into the roof of the net but could only manage to drive the ball hard over the crossbar and send his squad crashing out, whilst allowing Bruce’s men to narrowly scrape through to the Quarter finals.
Despite triumphing in the tie, there are still a lot of things for Steve Bruce and his staff to look to improve if they want to have a chance at challenging for the top 10, and potentially to even stay out of a relegation battle, due to the increasing worry of a lack of attacking threat that still haunts the club.
Although for Newport, they can take a lot of positives especially from their first half performance as they were much the better side, and had Newcastle worried for large parts of the half, and still had a few attempts in the second half to double their lead.