Newcastle United survive full-blooded old school FA Cup tie against Birmingham to book place in fifth round draw

Newcastle United overcame a huge test from Birmingham City in the FA Cup fourth round in one of the most entertaining games of the season for various reasons.

The Magpies knew they were in for a tough game less than one minute into the tie when Birmingham took the lead through Ethan Laird with the St Andrews atmosphere absolutely rocking.

It took another 20 minutes for Newcastle to get back on terms via Joe Willock, who saw his scrappy effort palmed out by the Birmingham keeper only for him to sky the rebound. However, while Willock was beating himself up for his miss, the referee blew to award the goal after the linesman said the ball had crossed the line before Bailey Peacock-Farrell pushed it out. We're not convinced it was, but we're not going to question it now. It was a lot tighter than that offside call that allowed Man United's goal to stand on Friday.

In the 20 minutes leading up to Willock's equaliser Newcastle had regained control of the game and Will Osula had an absolutely outstanding first half, to the point where Birmingham's sole tactic for dealing with him was to kick the ever-living crap out of him.

Newcastle's goals were far from classics but they all count

After Willock's equaliser it only looked like there would be one winner and five minutes later, Callum Wilson making only his third start for Newcastle since Boxing Day 2023, was back among the goals profiting from a ricochet off Osula's heel and poking home from close range.

However, nobody could have predicted what would happen next as Tomoki Iwata belted home an absolute stunner from 25 yards to level the score on 40 minutes.

The game remained all square at half time, but it certainly seemed like Newcastle were in control.

Newcastle failed to add to the scoreline until late in the second half

Bruno Guimaraes was replaced by Sandro Tonali for the second half, and the Italian was absolutely outstanding in the second half, with BBC's Guy Mowbray saying late on that Tonali hadn't put a foot wrong.

However, his influence didn't inspire Newcastle to press home their advantage. But to be fair, Birmingham City owner Tom Brady must have been on the blower at half time and told them to tackle like they do in the Super Bowl as Birmingham opted to just kick lumps out of our lads. How they finished the game with all 11 players on the pitch, we'll never know.

Eventually, Newcastle did get their reward for their dominance; it was that man again, Joe Willock, who rolled the ball through the legs of Peacock-Farrell to make it 3-2 on 82 minutes.

Newcastle go into the draw for the FA Cup fifth round

There were 12 minutes of stoppage time after a couple of injuries for each side and a very stop-start second-half as the referee lost control of the game.

We imagine that from a neutral perspective, it was a quality, old-school FA Cup tie. From a Newcastle point of view, we were just hoping that we got through without any big injuries.

It's into the fifth-round draw now. Let's hope it's a kind one as the draw takes place on Monday during BBC One's The One Show.