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Eddie Howe 'delighted' with Newcastle's fourth round FA Cup victory at Birmingham
It wasn't easy, but Newcastle United outlasted hosts Birmingham City to claim a 3-2 victory in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
The Magpies came into the match as heavy favourites given their status as a Premier League side taking on a League One outfit, but the relative gulf in class was not on display in the early going as Birmingham's Ethan Laird opened the scoring inside the first minute of play.
The shock start put Newcastle on their heels, but Joe Willock scored the equaliser in the 21st minute and Callum Wilson put the visitors ahead just five minutes later. However, the back-and-forth nature of the match continued as Tomoki Iwata's 40th-minute tally put the teams on level terms heading into halftime.
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Newcastle then took hold of the match in the second half but were thwarted until the 82nd minute, when Willock scored the match-winner — his second goal of the game — to lift the visitors into the next round.
"It was a tough game for us," Newcastle manager Eddie Howe told BBC One. "Mentally, physically – you could see a few players were on the edge today. We’re delighted to get through.
"I thought it was going to be a difficult night before the game. [The first-minute goal] made it doubly difficult because the atmosphere in the stadium totally changed.
"We managed to get a foothold and did really well. At half-time it was about staying calm. I thought we did that a lot better in the second half."
