Newcastle United are now in a position where they have to use the strongest line-up available in their season-defining League Cup tie against Leicester City.
The limits of Eddie Howe's squad - who went in against Sheffield Wednesday on the back of a heavy festive programme - were laid bare in the FA Cup as he made eight changes to his regular Premier League side. But with two games in the space of four nights, Howe had no alternative to ring the changes in the FA Cup tie.
The lowdown is that Newcastle's squad was never expected to be fully equipped to deal with a challenge on three fronts at this stage. With the takeover only into their second season, the squad rebuild is still some distance away from having at least two stars to compete for each shirt.
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However, with the season's hopes of silverware on the line somewhat against Leicester, the Toon boss is expected to restore Nick Pope in goal and hand Callum Wilson a chance against the Foxes. Wilson sat out against Sheff Wed as he recovered from a recent illness to help get him back up to speed for Tuesday.
Stars like Fabian Schar, Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Joe Willock should also be in line to step back on to the hallowed turf at St James' Park on a night Wor Flags are encouraging fans to bring their scarves to create one of the biggest atmospheres in years. The scarf campaign will be a throwback to Alan Shearer's testimonial when fans spontaneously began twirling scarves in the air to produce an unbelievable night.
And supporters know that, despite losing to Sheff Wed, one road to Wembley is still very much open to the Magpies in the League Cup and only Leicester stand in their way of a two-legged crack of a last four clash in the other domestic competition.
Reflecting on the defeat at Sheff Wed, Howe emerged afterwards to tell reporters: "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.
"We haven’t experienced defeat a lot this season and it’s very painful, you don’t want to lose any game. We were determined to do well in this competition but it wasn’t to be and there’s always things to learn."
After the final whistle players fronted up to the fans with Howe determined to use the defeat as fuel to push Newcastle to the next level. He said: "The Leicester game is 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 there but obviously that didn’t materialise."
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