Newcastle made to work hard for date with Chelsea in Carabao Cup

Newcastle United saw off the challenge of a plucky little AFC Wimbledon side on Tuesday night.

In the re-arranged and venue-swapped Carabao Cup fixture which saw AFC Wimbledon travel to St James' Park after their own ground was ruined by the bad weather in London last week.

The Dons came to Newcastle with a clear gameplan - put 11 players behind the ball and just make sure Newcastle don't get close enough to do anything of note.

It's a plan that worked brilliantly with the Dons only let down by a rush of blood at the end of the first half which saw the Magpies granted a penalty.

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Wimbledon might feel hard done by with the penalty decision

We're not even sure if it was a penalty as Joe Pigott was adjudged to have caught Miguel Almrion. The referee's assistant was certain and convincing enough to talk the referee into awarding it after he'd originally let play continue.

First-half captain Fabian Schar stepped up to the spot nd rolled a cheeky spot kick beyond the 'keeper to send Newcaste into the dressing room 1-0 up.

At half-time Martin Dubravka, who picked up a hefty knock, was replaced by Odysseas Vlachodimos for his competitive debut and Bruno Guimaraes replaced Harvey Barnes.

Newcastle dominated possession without ever threatening

Bruno injected a bit more urgency into Newcastle's play who had been passing the ball around nicely but never really threatened.

Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall entered the game on 60 minutes but even their introductions couldn't do enough to force a real chance for the Magpies.

Will Osula played 90 minutes and, just like everyone else, never really looked like scoring, he did make a lot of good runs and made a nuisance of himself.

It was Fabian Schar's penalty that won the game, and while it's hard to criticise the performance, there was also very little to get excited about either.

It's job done and onto Chelsea at home in the next round. Before that though, there's the small matter of Everton in the Premier League on Saturday in the 5:30pm kick-off.