Carabao Cup: Newport 1-1 Newcastle (5-6 pens) – Newcastle progress on spot-kicks

Newcastle narrowly avoided becoming League Two Newport County’s latest scalp as they scored a late equaliser before winning on penalties to reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

Scot Bennett and Padraig Amond missed chances to extend their lead, while County keeper Nick Townsend denied Ryan Fraser and Miguel Almiron.

Just as Newcastle’s search for a late equaliser looked destined to end in vain, Jonjo Shelvey curled a beautiful shot into the top corner.

With no extra time played, that goal took the game straight to penalties, and it was Newport defender Brandon Cooper who missed the decisive penalty as he blasted over.

That was only the third missed spot-kick from 12 overall, with Newcastle’s Joelinton and Newport’s Ryan Taylor the others who failed to score.

Newcastle may feel they deserved victory with their second-half dominance but it was a cruel way for Newport to lose and miss out on another memorable cup upset.

In the past two years, they had beaten Leeds United, Leicester City and Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, while they had drawn with Tottenham and made life uncomfortable for Manchester City.

Mike Flynn’s side had also accounted for two Championship clubs, Swansea City and Watford, in this season’s EFL Cup to reach the last 16 for the first time.

County may have sensed another upset was in the offing when they saw Steve Bruce had made seven changes to the Newcastle side which had snatched a controversial 1-1 draw at Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday – and the home side made the perfect start.

Scott Twine unleashed a fierce shot from 25 yards which dipped on to the crossbar and bounced out to Abrahams, who controlled the ball and struck a relatively tame effort which Gillespie could only help into the net.

The goal was a little fortuitous but Newport were well worth their lead, which they were twice close to doubling when Bennett and then Amond fired powerful half-volleys narrowly over.

Newcastle, by contrast, were lethargic and could only muster a handful of first-half shots on goal from Jacob Murphy and Shelvey.

The visitors had an excellent chance to equalise early in the second half but Ryan Fraser and Miguel Almiron were thwarted in quick succession by a superb double-save by Nick Townsend.

Bruce introduced two strikers worth a combined £60m, Callum Wilson and Joelinton, in an attempt to give Newcastle’s attack a fresh impetus, and that prompted a period of sustained pressure.

For all their dominance of possession, however, Newcastle struggled to carve open their lower-league opponents.

On the rare occasions they did create clear scoring opportunities, they were confronted by determined Newport defending, which was strikingly evident when Cooper denied Fraser what seemed a certain goal with a brilliant sliding block.

Cooper’s last-ditch intervention demonstrated how much cup ties like this can mean for clubs such as Newport, who received £125,000 for having this game televised – particularly precious as lower-league clubs count the cost of the coronavirus pandemic.

But this was not to be a match-winning contribution from Cooper.

With three minutes left, Shelvey turned just inside the Newport penalty area and stroked the ball into the top far corner with a brilliantly measured strike to take the game to penalties.

Then to compound Newport and Cooper’s heartbreak, it was the young defender on loan from Swansea whose missed penalty gave Newcastle victory in the shoot-out.