Newcastle United are through to the fourth round of the FA Cup after another dramatic game at St James’ Park saw us win a penalty shootout against Bournemouth.
Harvey Barnes continued his form from midweek when he opened the scoring in the second half, before the visitors turned the game on its head to make it 1-2. Sandro Tonali was brought down in stoppage time, to which Anthony Gordon scored the penalty to take us into extra time.
Barnes poked a header home with just minutes to spare to make it 3-2, before Marcus Tavernier’s soft 122nd-minute goal sent us to penalties, where Aaron Ramsdale was the hero in a 7-6 shootout win.
Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say after another bonkers albeit entertaining game under the lights:
Thoughts on this afternoon’s game
After the comeback win against Leeds midweek, the last thing Howe and the fanbase needed was another rollercoaster affair.
On the surface, it perhaps should have been less frantic against a team which has now won just one in their previous 12 games, but Howe praised his side for staying resilient and ultimately getting the win.
“Yeah, I think a really great cup tie, I thought. Two teams going for the win. Again, a very open game, similar to Leeds, in the respect that I think we’ve had a right go today.
“The players have worked far harder than we wanted them to, with extra time, especially with Tuesday in mind. But the priority was to try and get through and sustain the competition, and we’ve managed that, so we’re very pleased.”
It continues our winning start to 2026, but with our biggest game of the campaign coming up on Tuesday against Man City, Howe will be hoping today didn’t take too much out of his players.
“Now we’ve got to count the cost of it, really, and try and regroup and try and get the players fresh for Tuesday.
“The one thing we didn’t want was extra time. We were well aware of that before the game, but we’re 2-1 down with a couple of minutes left. So at that moment, we wanted extra time. We wanted to stay in the competition.
“So we knew as soon as we scored that goal that there was going to be an extra burden on the players.”
On improvement in finding late goals
At the beginning of the season, we really struggled towards the end of games in terms of finding late winners and equalisers. And whilst there’s still plenty to do in regards to keeping hold of leads, the last two games have assured Howe that we’re still fighting until the very last kick of the game.
“Yeah I think we haven’t scored enough late goals. You know, our numbers aren’t too bad actually and we’re increasing them rapidly so that’s good to see.
“And I think that feeling that you’re never out a game, would we have come back today if we hadn’t come back against Leeds? I don’t know, maybe not. Maybe there’s extra belief because we have scored late goals and then we do it again today.
“So maybe that helps us, and I believe those things truly are linked. So I’m pleased the fact we’ve come back, I’m pleased we’ve got through a penalty shootout, again, psychologically that can be really helpful for the group.
“I’m pleased for Rammers (Ramsdale), pleased for the whole squad, pleased for those that took penalties and those that missed will just add to our experience.”
On trialling a two-striker system
When the team news came in, many were surprised to see both Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa start together for the first time in their Newcastle careers.
And whilst neither man found themselves on the scoresheet, Woltemade looked a lot more comfortable playing deeper, whilst Wissa popped up with some big chances.
That said, Howe didn’t sound too convinced, hinting that this 4-4-2/4-1-1- system isn’t one we’ll see too regularly:
“It was ok. There were some good bits and bits that weren’t maybe so good.
“I wanted to do it in a game that would tactically benefit us.
“I wanted the option to go to it, I don’t see this being a regular system… but who knows.”
Happy but still we need a gk..why is ramsdel celebrating… the second goal he could have saved because Brooks some how run from mid field literally with no challenge and scored…we just need a good gk
Henock ethiopia(Quote)
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Henock ethiopia(Quote)
It’s a shame to see Howe be dismissive of this setup.
I thought our (repeated) linkup play was the best we have seen for a long time. I accept that part of that will be down to the quality of Bournemouth. But the shape looked a lot better – passes were on, movement created triangles (we are often really flat), and there were bodies flooding forward.
It wasn’t great defensively, but do we really need 3 ‘flat’ central mids? Can’t we work out how to protect our back 4 with 2 central mids and also factor in that if we can retain possession better (and be more effective attacking) then this outweighs such a defensive setup?
You would hope that against the top ~6 we could play the defensive/counter-attack setup, but against the rest of the league we should be able to play today’s setup. And the long term objective should be to recruit and strengthen to be able to play this setup against every team.
Howe the toon(Quote)
Agreed! I actually really liked the buildups as well! Some fluid one touches and I thought Woltemade was a good fulcrum point. I think it has real potential and certainly more exciting to watch. It’s not like our defense has been good in the old formation anyways 😂
JP(Quote)