Magpies held at home
League One Oxford earn another crack at Steve Bruce’s side
The club have been relegated twice from the Premier League during his reign with supporters accusing the businessman of failing to invest.
Staveley’s ability to buy Newcastle has been questioned despite a series of proposed bids. At one point, sources close to Ashley released a statement claiming “attempts to reach a deal have proved to be exhausting, frustrating and a complete waste of time”.
If there is new ownership, the level of investment in Newcastle remains to be seen but fans will be excited by the funds potentially available through the Saudi owners, although it is understood that a plan of sustainable development will be put in place.
Even so Newcastle can expect significant funds to be invested in the playing squad.
Newcastle declined to comment while Staveley could not be contacted.
A bittersweet day to be a Newcastle United fan: reports swirling again of a multi-million takeover, with Saudi Arabia in the frame to relieve Mike Ashley of his shares, but matters on the park of the rather more prosaic variety. A poor draw at home to lowly opposition in the FA Cup sparking debate once more about whether replays should be scrapped.
Oxford United fully deserve a second crack at Newcastle and to have that opportunity taken away from them, because a handful of Premier League managers at the biggest, richest clubs have decided to complain about the extra games, would be a travesty.
The arrival of Newcastle to the Kassam Stadium will be a special day for the supporters to look forward to and the chances of an upset will grow because Karl Robinson’s side did enough here to suggest they are good enough to beat them.
This is the traditionalist view, the idea that the FA Cup is about the little clubs as well as the big ones; the belief in the idea that those with the small budgets and the hand-to-mouth survival plan should be able to benefit from the extra injection of funds replays bring. As we have seen with Bury, their very survival could depend on it.
Yet, having seen his players grind out an impressive draw, Robinson revealed he did not want the replay either. When that happens, surely it is only a matter of time before football loses another one of its traditions and lower-league clubs lose another vital revenue stream.
“If you were asking the chairman, he wants the replay,” Robinson admitted. “But if you are asking me, the FA Cup would be better if it was finished today.
“We play a stupid amount of games, some of my players are broken, we are going to play something like 60 games this season.
“We’ve come here without five of our first-choice team. If some of the managers at the big clubs are complaining about the extra games, imagine what it is like for someone at League One level. We simply do not have the resources to cope.”
Steve Bruce agreed, predictably. He had hoped to give his players a few days off while he recharged his batteries somewhere nice and warm. Now he will have to prepare for an unwanted replay. His team, though, got precisely what they deserved – extra training sessions and no holiday.
They were poor from the start, sluggish and sloppy, a collective malaise that they simply could not snap out of.
“I’m disappointed, frustrated, upset,” said Bruce. “We began badly and when you do that, you give a team like Oxford confidence. We gave the ball away repeatedly, we made so many mistakes, it wasn’t good enough. We had a full house in and I would have loved to send them away enraptured, but we were poor.
“If it ruins the week off, that is the price we pay. For me, it would have been nice to settle the tie today, we have got this winter break now and they have stuck cup replays in there, so what is the point?”
Oxford defended superbly and offered enough of a threat on the counter to have almost snatched a win. Indeed, Marcus Browne had the best chance of the game, but the striker, on loan from Middlesbrough, shot straight at Karl Darlow.
“He is a special talent, but his finishing is useless,” said Robinson. “He needs a calmness that age will bring but what a special player Middlesbrough have got.” The home team should have taken the lead when Jamaal Lascelles put a free header over, as the game meandered, silently, into half time. There may have been a capacity crowd inside the stadium, but they did not have anything to make any noise about.
There was a little more urgency at the start of the second half and Nabil Bentaleb’s sweetly-struck shot, well saved by Simon Eastwood, began a period of sustained pressure that saw Lascelles’s side-footed finish blocked.
The Oxford goalkeeper had to be sharp to deny Allan Saint-Maximin at his near post too.
But Oxford broke out of the siege and, without forcing Darlow into a save, Browne came very close to finding the top corner with a fine effort.
A slick finish by Joelinton proved meaningless as he was again offside, before Miguel Almiron scooped over from close range. Oxford may even have snatched the win in stoppage time, as Nathan Holland forced a good save from Darlow.