Newcastle United made history TWICE on League Cup night against Crystal Palace as the good times continue to roll at St James' Park.
For a start, the attendance of 51,660 was the biggest ever in this competition for the club as it pipped the 49,902 crowd of 1976 against Tottenham in the semi-final of the League Cup. And then came the heroics in the penalty shoot-out as bad memories were replaced by a wonderful display between the posts from England international Nick Pope.
His three stops to deny Luka Milivojevic, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Malcolm Ebiowei meant that Newcastle won a shoot-out at home for the first time ever in any competition. Some high profile defeats on spot-kicks include going out the Champions League to Partizan Belgrade in 2003 and Chelsea in the FA Cup in 1996.
More recently defeats to Leicester and Burnley ended progress early in this competition. For the record this was the third time Newcastle had won on pens in the League Cup after beating Newport County in 2020 and Watford back in 2006.
Team spirit shown for duo who missed their spot-kicks
Both Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman could not convert from the spot but Newcastle won anyway. In the end the misses didn't matter and will prove to be only a learning curve.
But the classy thing about the squad after the event was the way that they rallied around Bruno and Botman as the duo were told not to worry. Pope's penalty saves and successes from Chris Wood, Kieran Trippier and Joelinton sent United into the hat anyway.
Bruno and Botman were still a little down as they left the stadium but further emotional support from team-mates was on hand as they said farewell for the night and smaller gathering of players consoled them.
Howe doesn't risk Callum Wilson
The striker was not even on the bench against Crystal Palace but there is no serious issue ahead of the World Cup squad announcement. Wilson has been under the weather and feeling poorly.
He complained of dizziness in the 4-1 defeat against Southampton last weekend. When asked about Wilson's absence Howe explained: "It's about the illness and not wanting to take a risk while his immune system is low. There's no problem - we're just trying to look after him."
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