Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe was disillusioned he was unable to provide Allan Saint-Maximin a invaluable begin within the FA Cup third-round loss to Sheffield Wednesday.
The Magpies had been crushed by Sky Bet League One opposition for the second season operating as two targets from Josh Windass gave the Owls a memorable third-round win at Hillsborough after Bruno Guimaraes had pulled one again.
Howe made eight adjustments to his staff and was planning to provide the French winger a begin as he builds up his health following a hamstring damage till he was dominated out with sickness.
Howe mentioned: “Absolutely, it was a huge disappointment that he missed out. We thought it would be an ideal match for him to build his fitness and match time after his hamstring injury.
“But sometimes these things are just meant to be, it happened and hopefully he will be back soon.
“We hope just to get him back to full fitness because he is a game changer, a matchwinner and I think you could see, with him in the team, that result is potentially different.
“All we can do is get him back to his best as quickly as possible.”
Newcastle had greater than sufficient possibilities to not less than earn a replay towards their hosts, with Alexander Isak, making his first look since mid-September, seeing two efforts saved by Owls goalkeeper Cameron Dawson.
That grew to become a little bit of a theme as Dawson additionally saved brilliantly from Elliot Anderson and Jacob Murphy within the second half as Wednesday produced their finest end result since beating Arsenal within the League Cup in 2015.
Dawson instructed the membership’s official web site: “It reminded me of the Arsenal one a few years ago, there was a full away following from Newcastle and a proper cup tie.
“The lads were resolute and dug in, scored two good goals and just managed to get over the line at the end with some bodies on the line. So we got the job done.
“It is always nice to save one early, against a top Premier League outfit your goalie is probably going to have to make some saves so it was nice tonight to be able to make a few.
“I’d have liked a clean sheet but that is being a bit greedy. We’ll take the win and see who we get in the next round.”
