Blackburn 1-1 Newcastle (AET, 3-4 on pens): Martin Dubravka is the FA Cup shootout hero for Magpies as they edge past Championship strugglers after Anthony Gordon striker was …

The FA Cup can be a sticking plaster for Newcastle during this season of cuts and bruises, and for much of this game it looked like being ripped away. That would have left Eddie Howe wounded and exposed.

As it is, a penalty shootout victory keeps alive a campaign of turbulence, and this match was very much in keeping with those ups and downs.

It looked like ending on a high when, in extra-time, Anthony Gordon and Sean Longstaff were faced one-on-one with Aynsley Pears in the six-yard area, only for the Blackburn keeper to save from both in quick succession. Defender Scott Wharton then blocked in the goalmouth from Bruno Guimaraes.

But that did not tell the story of Blackburn’s superiority and Newcastle’s best player was goalkeeper Martin Dubravka. How fitting it was, then, that he saved the decisive penalty from Dom Hyam to send Newcastle into the last eight of a competition they last won 69 years ago.

For Howe, there was huge relief, but also concern on a night when, without Dubravka, they would have been dumped out with little cause for complaint.

Newcastle have progressed to the FA Cup quarter-finals after Martin Dubravka denied Blackburn captain Dominic Hyam on penalties

Blackburn players were distraught as the Championship hosts crashed out of the FA Cup on penalties

Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka saved Blackburn captain Dominic Hyam’s effort to win the shootout

There was at least an immediate improvement on Saturday’s performance down at Arsenal – a 4-1 defeat in which Howe said every aspect of their game was off – for Newcastle won a corner inside nine minutes, something they failed to achieve in 90 at the Emirates. Still, nothing came of it. In fact, nothing came of anything the visitors did during the opening half an hour.

MATCH FACTS AND RATINGS 

BRFC (3-4-2-1): Pears 7.5; Hyam 6, McFadzean 7 (Koumetio 72, 5), Wharton 7.5; Brittain 6.5, Buckley 7.5 (Garrett 64, 6), Moran 6 (Ayari 64, 6), Chrisene 6.5; Szmodics 8, Dolan 6.5 (Markanday 64, 6); Gallagher 6 (Sigurdsson 46, 6)

Subs: Wahlstedt, Pickering, Finneran, Telalovic

Manager: John Eustace 6.5

Bookings: Moran, Chrisene

Scorers: Szmodics 79

NUFC (4-3-3): Dubravka 8.5; Trippier 6 (Livramento 90, 6.5), Schar 6, Lascelles 5, Burn 6; Longstaff 5.5, Guimaraes 6, Willock 6 (Miley 62, 5.5); Murphy 5 (Almiron 62, 7), Isak 5.5 (Barnes 62, 5.5), Gordon 6.5

Subs: Karius, Ritchie, Krafth, Hall, Anderson

Manager: Eddie Howe 6

Bookings: Lascelles

Scorers: Gordon 71

Att: 22,730

MOM: Dubravka

Ref: J Gillett 7

Blackburn weren’t much better and even a fan protest against the club’s ownership was uninspiring. Arranged for the 14th minute to mark 14 years of the Venky’s, you would have done well to count even 14 tennis balls on the pitch. Given the number of abstainers, was this Venky’s out or Venky’s in?

Fans are frustrated by a lack of investment yet, for a period leading to half-time, it was Blackburn who looked like the team with the wealthy owners. They would have led on 31 minutes if not for the fingertips of Dubravka, who flicked a Tyrhys Dolan strike around the post.

Home playmaker Sammie Szmodics was the game’s most dangerous player – little surprise given he has 23 goals this season – and he was twice denied by Dubravka before the break. 

The second of those efforts, a rising drive in the 44th minute, looked like delivering the opening goal before Dubravka intervened to divert over the crossbar.

 That ball landed among the 7,000 travelling fans, not that you would have known they were so strong in number, so subdued had they become amid a pedestrian showing from their team.

All Newcastle offered by way of response in the first half was a Sean Longstaff shot blocked by the feet of Pears. The half-time whistle, for Howe at least, was a relief. One passage in which three of his players all misplaced passes to each other just about captured their opening 45 minutes. If the head coach was expecting a response to Arsenal – he criticised his players publicly for the first time this week – he did not get one.

New half, same story. John Buckley was dictating the contest from the middle of the park and, again, Newcastle needed Dubravka to preserve parity when he snaffled a 20-yard blast from the midfielder.

But where was Newcastle’s midfield? It has been a problem all season against Premier League opposition, the intensity that was once their identity having faded in the middle of the park. This, however, was second-tier opposition, and still they offered little control.

Anthony Gordon thought he had scored the winning goal in the 71st-minute at Ewood Park

Blackburn’s top striker Sammie Szmodics equalised to take to the match into extra time

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was relieved as his side avoided a huge FA Cup upset

A set-piece felt their most likely route to goal and Jamaal Lascelles connected with Kieran Trippier’s deep corner only to see his header cleared from the line by Kyle McFadzean.

That near miss sparked Newcastle into life and Longstaff soon set Gordon clear. It was their first attack of real conviction but Gordon’s finish was not nearly as convincing, prodding straight at Pears.

Still, it left the Magpies in the ascendancy and their 71st-minute breakthrough felt deserved, if only for the previous five minutes of belated dominance. Substitute Miguel Almiron drew back for Gordon on the penalty spot and, with less time to ponder this finish, he snapped instinctively beyond Pears.

But Blackburn’s spirit was not broken and the goal that forced extra-time arrived on 79 minutes. Lascelles attempted to head the ball to safety, missed it and watched from the floor as Dilan Markanday’s shot was brushed onto the bar by Dubravka before Szmodics followed up to score.