Magpies replay at Ewood Park
players who have not been playing having 90 minutes under their belts, the reaction of the team after we conceded and (Florian) Lejeune coming back after four and a half months with a serious injury. “Those are positives.” They came close to taking a 28th-minute lead when they broke at pace, but Ritchie’s initial strike was saved by Raya, before Elliott Bennett managed to block Joselu’s follow-up.
Jacob Murphy side-footed wastefully high and wide from Ritchie’s 48th-minute cross, but Dack was equally wasteful after being played in by Lewis Travis at the other end. However, Dack made amends for his miss with 56 minutes gone when he rose unopposed to power a header past Freddie Woodman from Bennett’s inviting cross.
Javier Manquillo then had to hack Charlie Mulgrew’s hooked effort off the line.
But, as the clock ticked down, referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot after sub Ayoze Perez had been felled by Corry Evans and Ritchie duly slotted the ball past Raya.
If Benitez’s relief at avoiding a ninth defeat in 12 home games this season was tempered by the prospect of a replay a matter of days before a crunch league clash with fellow strugglers Cardiff City on Tyneside, opposite number Tony Mowbray headed back to Lancashire wondering what might have been.
He said: “The dressing room is very quiet, very disappointed. We couldn’t really see Newcastle scoring to be honest.
“It’s just disappointing. The team that you saw is the team that’s just coming off the back of playing the top four in the Championship back-to-back and that’s the sort of performance-level we’ve given, really hard-working, honest.”