Joe Willock stars as Newcastle edge FA Cup thriller against Birmingham

Joe Willock scored twice including a late winner as Newcastle took another step towards a second Wembley appearance of the season with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Birmingham in the FA Cup.

Newcastle secured a trip to the national stadium with their midweek Carabao Cup victory over Arsenal and they will have their sights on another after reaching the FA Cup fifth round.

However, they were made to work hard for their win over a Birmingham side who came into the clash at St Andrew's on the back of an 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions, and the League One Blues could hardly have got off to a better start.

They took the lead inside the opening minute through Ethan Laird and could have netted again before the Premier League visitors responded and eased themselves ahead by the half-hour mark following two goals in five minutes from Willock and Callum Wilson, on his first start in 280 days.

Birmingham did not take it laying down though, Tomoki Iwata striking a fierce thunderbolt which flew past Nick Pope as the sides went into half-time level at 2-2 following a breath-taking opening 45 minutes.

Willock has found starts hard to come by this season but, having been handed the opportunity on Saturday, proved a point to Eddie Howe when he netted what would prove to be an 82nd-minute winner, rifling in his second of the match and third of the season to extend Newcastle’s cup joy.

St Andrew’s was in fine voice pre-match and the roof came off the place with just 40 seconds on the clock.

Kieran Dowell’s deep delivery from a corner was nodded back into the danger area by Keshi Anderson and Laird blasted in via deflection off Wilson to give the League One leaders a dream start.

Newcastle were caught cold inside a cauldron of noise and