Eddie Howe has reflected on Newcastle United’s early exit in the FA Cup on third round day. A Josh Windass double secured Sheff Wed’s passage into round four on a day to forget for the Magpies.
Speaking straight after the game, Howe said: “[I am] Bitterly disappointed to go out, I thought the performance was OK.
“We created enough chances to win the tie and their goalkeeper made a number of great saves but we weren’t clinical enough when those presentable opportunities were there.
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“We have to accept the defeat and Sheffield Wednesday battled for everything, as we did, but it wasn’t to be. We have a very small squad and have to protect that squad for games ahead.
“We felt we were strong enough to win the game today and I stick by that based on the first-half performance where we had chances to score, we just weren’t clinical in front of goal.”
And explaining his team selection, the Newcastle boss said: “The Leicester game [Carabao Cup quarter-final] was on the horizon for us and we picked a team based with this that game in mind and another Premier League game at the weekend.
“If that game wasn’t there the team selection would have possibly been different today. We are trying to juggle everything and make sure we were strong enough to win and I thought we were but obviously that didn’t materialise."
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