Eddie Howe again feels his side have plenty of room for improvement despite keeping their hopes alive in the League Cup with a shoot-out win over Crystal Palace. The Magpies edged a nervous night thanks to Nick Pope's three saves in the spot-kick finale at the Leazes End.
But Howe was not fully satisfied with the night's work. After making eight changes, he said: "I don't think it was a great performance from us, I thought we were a little bit disjointed.
"There are valid reasons for that – a lot of the players haven't played for a long period of time. Coming together as a group, they gave everything, but we weren't particularly fluid in our play.
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"We got through, and that's the most important thing. Very difficult game, tight game tonight, probably everything we expected it would be."
Newcastle's penalty shoot-out win was the first ever in the League Cup at St James' Park and only the third of all time after previous wins at Newport and Watford.
Howe said: "It's really good to get through however you get through. You'd prefer to do it in normal time, but if it's a penalty shoot-out, you've still got to find a way and we're indebted to Nick with some great saves."
