Brighton 1 Newcastle United 0

Jan 29 2012 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

NEWCASTLE United’s agonising wait for trophy goes on – and to that 43 years of hurt you can add a dash of agony at the Amex.

To make matters worse for the smarting Toon Army it was a boyhood Newcastle fan who twisted the knife in the latest act in the tragi-comedy that is United’s recent Cup record.

Not that armchair Newcastle fan Will Buckley was entirely responsible for this sad exit as Alan Pardew’s under-par Toon tumbled out of the FA Cup to lower-division opposition for the second successive season.

Once again architects of their own downfall, Pardew’s team let an eminently winnable contest slip away from them thanks to a combination of poor finishing and a momentary lapse in defensive concentration that proved catastrophic. What a curious night this was.

A giant-killing in the famous traditions of the competition it might have been, but it was one that came without a performance from the home side that really warranted their considerable scalp.

Newcastle were comfortable for most of it, racking up enough chances to put the Seagulls away long before Buckley’s decisive intervention.

And while Danny Simpson’s mis-step for the goal will be offered up by anyone yearning for a scapegoat, it was collective failings that ended up costing Newcastle dearly.

The most damning accusation you could level at the men in black was that there was no response to the Brighton goal.

True, United might have had a penalty when Yohan Cabaye’s long-range drive cannoned off Ashley Barnes’s hand in the penalty area in some frantic final exchanges, but there was precious little pressure applied to the Seagulls goal in those closing stages.

As Gus Poyet admitted afterwards, it was a good time to play Newcastle.

Demba Ba might have suffered Cup woe of his own with Senegal but you’d have fancied him to snaffle one of a string of opportunities wasted by profligate Leon Best.

Would Cheick Tiote have made a difference too? Newcastle occasionally lacked the conviction that their Ivorian warrior brings to the midfield engine room.

But most of all this was a story of missed opportunities – and the bigger picture of Newcastle spinning out of a competition they really fancied making an impact in.