Eddie Howe's candid view on Newcastle United's Carabao Cup performance

The club side beat Crystal Palace 3-2 on penalties after a goalless draw at St James’s Park tonight. Pope made three superb saves as the club won its first shootout at home.

Howe’s head coach had made eight changes to his starting XI following Sunday’s 4-1 Premier League win over Southampton, and United’s head coach admitted that the team's performance had been “a little bit disjointed”.

"Very difficult, tight game tonight,” said Howe. “Probably everything we expected it would be. I don’t think it was a great performance from us.

"We were a little bit disjointed. I think there’s valid reasons for that. A lot of the players hadn’t played for a long period of time, I thought they gave everything, but we weren’t particularly fluid in our play.

"We improved with the introduction of the substitutes, they made a real difference to the team, but we couldn’t force a goal in normal time, so we had to do it the hard way,

“You prefer to do it in normal time, but if it’s penalty shootout, you’ve still got to find a way (to win). We’re indebted to Nick for some great saves.”

Pope, along with club-mate Kieran Trippier, is set to be named in England’s 26-man World Cup squad tomorrow.

Palace manager Patrick Vieira said: “It's a tough one, of course, when you lose a cup game. It's not easy, and difficult to accept.”