Karl Darlow says Newcastle United have every reason to believe they can go further in this season’s FA Cup after progressing to the last eight of the competition with a 3-2 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday night.
After coming through incident-packed encounters against Rochdale and Oxford United in previous rounds, the Magpies looked to be cruising after opening up a commanding lead at the Hawthorns through Miguel Almirón’s brace and Valentino Lazaro’s first goal for the club.
But, typical of their campaign so far, there was still drama to come for Newcastle, as the Baggies got themselves back within touching distance through Matt Phillips and substitute Kenneth Zohore.
That meant that the 5,000-strong Toon Army had to endure a nervy few seconds before their side’s passage to the quarter finals was confirmed, a stage United haven’t got to since 2006, where they lost out to Chelsea.
This time out, though, Darlow believes they should be setting their sights still further, with the stopper also quick to pay tribute to the vociferous away following who helped roar the Magpies over the line.
“I think first of all, the fans were unbelievable behind the goal tonight; you saw they’d packed the whole stand out and they didn’t stop singing the whole game,” he told nufc.co.uk. “It was amazing for us away from home knowing they were out-singing the home fans. Obviously the club’s not done great in the past, but the manager came out in the press and set his sights out to get as far in the competition as we can. We’ve named strong sides, if you like, and for a club as big as Newcastle, why can’t we go further?
“Obviously there was a little bit of relief in the end. The final few minutes were a bit twitchy after they got the second, but before that I felt we were very comfortable and played some very good football for 70 or 75 minutes, which we can be proud of and I think the fans can be proud of too. West Brom are a very good side – they’re top of the Championship and we knew we were going to be in for a tough test. We started off very well, passed the ball nicely and to create the chances that we did – and score three goals – was very good.
“It’s the FA Cup, so whoever we’ve got next we know we’ve got a chance. We stay grounded, we’ll see who we get next and hopefully we can grind out another result to get to Wembley.”
While United have negotiated their way into the latter stages of a cup competition for the first time in several years, their form in the Premier League has stuttered of late, with Steve Bruce’s side starting to look over their shoulders after a run of just one win in ten games.
Darlow is hopeful, then, that the Magpies can take heart from their showing in the West Midlands going into a significant top-flight clash at Southampton on Saturday.
“Winning games always breeds confidence – every football match you go out and win is good for the club, good for the players and the fans will be pleased we’ve scored three goals tonight,” he said. “Hopefully we can build a bit of momentum off it and it’s a little bit of a pick-me-up after a few disappointing results, so fingers crossed for Saturday.”