Newcastle progress in FA Cup against dogged Birmingham

Jordan Cronin and Charlie Bennett review Birmingham City vs. Newcastle United.

Transcript

00:00We've just watched Newcastle United progress into the fifth round of the FA Cup 3-2 win

00:06at League One, lead as Birmingham City. Charlie, I'll come to you on your general thoughts

00:11on that.

00:12We spoke before the game, didn't we? We said, this could be a bit of a hiccup. I even put

00:17on my social media, I thought, you know, Birmingham haven't lost a game in 18 games, unbeaten

00:23since November, top of League One. We knew coming down here that Newcastle were going

00:27to play a disjointed team. And I don't have to tell Newcastle fans about the FA Cup hiccups

00:32that they've had over the years. So, it sort of looked like, as I said in the press room

00:37beforehand, it looked like it could be a bit of a banana skin. And after 30 seconds or

00:40whatever it was, we thought, oh, yeah, we'll go, whatever. But the dug in, they got a little

00:46bit of fortune. I've yet to properly see that back.

00:49I don't think it was over, like. I'm not sure whether you realise, I don't think it was

00:51over, like.

00:52If it had been against Newcastle, I think there'd have been some anger there from the

00:57away fans. Looked at the road, the look, they made a few changes. Asula looked a bright

01:04spark and they did what was needed to be done, really, with a weakened team. Obviously, Isak

01:10got a rest, Gordon got a rest. Was there an update on Gordon?

01:14Yeah, no, so the injury situation isn't the greatest. Actually, there's a few concerns

01:21ahead of Manchester City next week. So, Anthony Gordon missed a game with a quad injury. Sven

01:27Botman, of course, was that knee injury, which isn't the knee that he did with his ACL knee.

01:34Dan Byrne, Dan Byrne, almost with a nasty one, didn't he?

01:37But they'll all be assessed ahead of next week. And yeah, he said he hopes Anthony Gordon

01:41will be back for next week, but can't say yet.

01:45It's odds low as well. You've got this typical Newcastle United that Sven Botman's obviously

01:51got to knock. He was out for a long time last season. Dan Byrne, of all players, Mr.

01:56Reliable, come off injured the day after letting Lloyd Kelly go.

02:01Yeah, that's the typical thing, isn't it? Where you're literally, Lloyd Kelly couldn't

02:05get a kick whilst he was here. And then all of a sudden when he leaves, you're actually

02:09in a position where...

02:10He would have got a game.

02:11Yeah, you need him. He would have started here, but look, that decision's been made,

02:14I think, financially, I think everyone accepts that. But yeah, I think hopefully injuries

02:20aren't too bad, because getting through the day was big because, as you mentioned at the

02:25start, there was a potential for Norrasken, Birmingham flying high at the top of League

02:30One. Their fans, I thought, were really, really good today. Electric at the start, all the

02:34pre-match build-up. So it felt like when you cast all the nine changes, based on how they'd

02:39played previously against our league opposition, Bromley and Wimbledon, where they'd made wholesale

02:45changes and, OK, they won those games, but weren't convincing, it felt like they had

02:49a similar feel today, where they might be caught napping. And I actually think maybe

02:52that goal after 30 seconds for Birmingham, actually, maybe you had a... maybe benefit

02:58in your castle, because it woke them up.