Newcastle 1-0 Wimbledon: Toon set up Chelsea clash as Fab settles cup tie

Newcastle United are through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after seeing off Wimbledon at St James' Park thanks to a first half spot kick from Fabian Schar.

The victory sets up a meeting with Chelsea later this month for a place in the quarter-finals, with the Blues set to arrive on Tyneside on Wednesday 30th October; in between our trip to Stamford Bridge (Sunday 30th) and home clash with Arsenal on Saturday 2nd November.

Howe has made eight changes from Saturday's 1-1 draw against Man City, seeing Osula, Almiron, Willock, Longstaff, Livramento, Kelly, Krafth and Dubravka all coming into a side Schar captained. Gordon, Murphy, Bruno, Tonali, Trippier, Hall, Burn and Pope all dropped out of th XI,

It was Osula's first competitive start following his £10m move from Sheffield United and the 6ft 4' Dane was presented with the first big chance of the night four minutes in. He raced onto a lovely through ball from Almiron and showed his blistering pace to get in behind, but didn't get his shot off quickly enough as Wimbledon cleared for a corner.

Wimbledon hadn't conceded in five of their last six games in all competitions and beat Ipswich on penalties in the last round. They looked well organised and we looked like a side that'd made wholesale changes, taking time to find our rhythm with a few too many stray passes.

After Miggy's disallowed goal and a decent one-two between Tino and Longstaff that ended in a tame shot from the latter, Barnes cut in from the left and almost curled a trademark effort into the top right corner. He wasn't the only one to fire just over, with Almiron missing a good chance to break the deadlock after ghosting in from the right. The Paraguayan should've hit the target but couldn't keep it down.

We'd had 85% possession at this stage and finally broke the deadlock on 45 minutes. Almiron was brought down and Schar stepped up to do the rest, slotting home nonchalantly to give us a 1-0 lead going into the break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDNbFUG3eZ4

Dubravka took a nasty whack to the knee in the first half and he did not return for the second 45, seeing Odysseas Vlachodimos make his competitive debut for the club after missing out on every matchday squad before tonight.

Bruno Guimaraes also replaced Barnes at the break, where Howe mixed it up with a by moving Tino to left-back, Krafth to right-back and Kelly alongside Schar at the heart of our defence. Joelinton then shifted over to the left-wing.

Bruno's introduction added a sprinkle of quality to our approach play as he found a few clever passes between the lines. Miggy was lively in patches without much end product when it mattered and Osula's pace and movement in behind was clear to see.

Howe brought on Gordon and Hall for Joelinton and Krafth and it should have been 2-0 shortly after the hour mark. Tino, who was now back to right-back, delivered a cut-back that fell kindly for Willock, only for his goal-bound shot to smash a Wimbledon head before Bruno's penalty appeal was turned down.

Osula then showed more sharp movement to spin off his man and get a shot off, which flashes just wide of the near post. The big man's power and running was evident moments later as he battled a number of blue shirts, this time down the right channel. He's raw, but his big frame, pace and sharp runs give Howe plenty to work with.

Our second injury concern of the night came when Schar went down holding his ankle with 15 minutes to play after landing awkwardly. Thankfully, he was OK to continue and he picked out another stunning pass from deep to set up another Willock chance that was well blocked.

With a minute of the 90 left to play, Howe made his fifth change of the night as Burn replaced Schar at the back. Perhaps a precautionary move as our match-winner and man of the match came off to warm applause just as five minutes of injury time was signalled, which we saw out comfortably to seal a 1-0 win.

It wasn't always pretty as our much-changed side looked like one that hadn't played together before at times, but we got the job done and keep the momentum going ahead of Saturday's trip to Everton.

Start of first half XI: Dubravka – Livramento, Krafth, Schar (c), Kelly – Longstaff, Joelinton, Willock – Almiron, Osula, Barnes.

Start of seconld half XI: Vlachodimos - Krafth, Schar, Kelly, Livramento – Longstaff, Bruno (c), Willock – Almiron, Osula, Joelinton.

SUBS: Vlachodimos*, Ruddy, Tonali, Gordon*, Hall*, J.Murphy, Burn*, A.Murphy, Guimaraes*.

Howay the lads.