Eddie Howe gamble in glorious FA Cup tie sets Newcastle up for season of all seasons
Newcastle won a brilliant FA Cup tie, with the joy that peaked upon Tomoki Iwata’s howitzer initiated by Eddie Howe before the game kicked off. Well done everyone.
“I think our team is a reflection of the last week,” Eddie Howe said ahead of the game. “You have to take in the psychology of the week we’ve just had. The Arsenal game was a huge effort from all our players. We are aware we have to manage this game, it’s going to be a difficult game, we want to try and progress and we want to get the balance right. We have made a number of changes but I still think it’s a strong team.”
A “strong team” that featured four players (Matt Targett, Lewis Miley, William Osula, Callum Wilson) who are yet to start a Premier League game this season, with three others (Emil Krafth, Sean Longstaff, Joe Willock) starting just 16 between them. It was a bold move from a manager who would be relying on victory over Liverpool to end their 70-year wait for a trophy had they come unstuck against League One Birmingham.
The St Andrew’s crowd sensed an upset after just 40 seconds when Ethan Laird thumped a deflected shot past Nick Pope having got on the end of Keshi Anderson’s unmarked header back across goal. The early opener set up an FA Cup classic made possible by Howe’s near wholesale changes.
Our thanks go to him, to William Osula, who looked desperate to stake his claim for a Premier League spot, to linesman Nigel Lugg, for guessing Joe Willock’s shot crossed the line, to Anderson, who caused Tino Livramento no end of problems on the left wing for Birmingham, to Newcastle as a whole for refusing to mark players at the back post, to the home fans, for creating a fervent atmosphere that was occasionally cut through by the Newcastle faithful chanting ‘we’re going to Wember-lee’, and most of all to Tomoki Iwata, who scored the sort of goal that will have young fans attempting to recreate it in back yards on Sunday and us oldies contemplating whether to dust off the Puma Kings.
Newcastle were in front by the time the Japan international spanked the ball into the top corner. Willock drew the visitors level after his shot was deemed to have crossed the line in the absence of technology, with inconclusive replays suggesting it probably shouldn’t have been given with the linesman a few yards short of having the required view. And Wilson put them in front, poking the ball in after some excellent work from Osula led to some six-yard box pinball which the Magpies striker reacted quickest to. He’s made a career of that sort of thing.
Amid calls up and down the country for Iwata to ‘HIT IT’ as the ball bounced kindly for him on the edge of the box, hit it he did, and it stayed thus, with his sublime half-volley a goal to send tingles through watching bodies and bring about toddler tears at parent screams before bath and bed. A moment of unrivalled quality to cut through the “beautiful chaos”.
That’s how Guy Mowbray described the first half, with the second period failing to live up to that dizzyingly joyous standard in large part due to a long stoppage after what looked like a serious injury to Marc Leonard, as well as plenty of fouls, yellow cards and substitutions besides.
Newcastle were in the ascendency as Birmingham tired, with Sandro Tonali both composed and aggressive, clearly relishing the combative game, and he helped to push the hosts back while asserting control before Willock fired through Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s legs late on.
Howe’s gamble paid off in the end, and he will be delighted by the grit his second-string showed in a difficult atmosphere to keep them in the FA Cup hat, with the rest granted to his first-team stars holding Newcastle in good stead ahead of their next three games against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before the Carabao Cup final next month in what could end up being the season of all seasons for the trophy-hungry Magpies.
