After our recent surge up to third in the Premier League, for 90 minutes on Wednesday night Newcastle fans really did "get their club" back, in all of its slipshod, dream-denying glory.

A record home crowd for the competition witnessed the sort of tedious. inert spectacle that in previous seasons had left some of them eyeing the exits and ignoring season ticket renewal letters.

Eight changes to the side that scored four at Southampton on Sunday inevitably resulted in a slow start and an absence of fluid pressing and passing - the only give and go's tonight were to ball boys.

As was so often the case, our success or lack of it revolved around whether Allan Saint-Maximin was in productive or wasteful mode. There was no lack of effort, but little end product and nothing to trouble the visiting defence.  Whoever chose not to put this tie on worldwide TV did us a good turn, while the abolition of 30 minutes extra time was equally fortuitous on this occasion.

Palace made their intentions clear by leaving top scorers Wilfried Zaha, Odsonne Edouard and Eberechi Eze in South London but still shaded the first half, before opting to successfully stonewall for penalties.

And then something happened, the sort of thing that only ever occurs elsewhere , for other fans. Newcastle won a penalty shootout on their own ground, after various failures over the past 43 years.

Even that milestone was laced with our own patented self-harming behaviour though; the stage seemingly set for people's champion Bruno Guimaraes to inflict the fatal blow and achieve immortality.

His penalty miss didn't look as bad on TV as it did in real time, but the elaborate, stuttering should really have been paired with the sort of xylophone soundtrack heard when cartoon characters tiptoe rapidly.

Thankfully though, Nick Pope assumed superhero status to make his third successful intervention of the shootout; denying Malcolm Ebiowei as he had Luka Milivojevic and Jean-Philippe Mateta previously.

Aside from the goalkeeper, only Dan Burn and Sean Longstaff kept their place in the side, Burn reverting to central defence. The disjointed display that then followed brought only a quickly-taken Jonjo Shelvey free kick drifting just wide before things brightened up after the break.

Chris Wood and Burn both managed efforts on target before the arrival of Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman and Bruno midway through the half boosted team and crowd alike - noise levels raised as Trippier instantly set about cajoling and reorganising his colleagues.

Further chances for Newcastle to win in normal time did belatedly appear; Miggy Almiron with a weak effort on target Joelinton and Matt Targett both failing to trouble the 'keeper as the clock ran down.

For once though the usual shootout despair here was avoided; something that we firmly believed would haunt us for all eternity now just a footnote - much like something else hanging over us that we just don't speak of, for fear of renewing the apparent curse that has been in place since 1955.

That approach isn't mirrored at the training ground though, where the following message now greets players, staff and visitors alike: