SEVEN-TIME Super Bowl winner Tom Brady decided to give this game a miss. What a mug!
Because he passed on an absolute epic tie as League One Birmingham and Premier League Newcastle went toe-to-toe to produce an all-time FA Cup classic.
Brady, a Birmingham City minority shareholder, is in New Orleans where he will commentate on tonight’s Super Bowl.
But there is no way Philadelphia’s Eagles will dig deeper than Eddie Howe’s Magpies — no chance Kansas City will battle harder than Birmingham did here.
At full-time as weary players dropped to the turf, St Andrew’s rose as one to applaud two sets of players who gave everything for 90 sensational minutes.
Joe Willock’s double settled this fourth-round FA Cup belter, while Brum’s Tomoki Iwata had to settle for scoring arguably the goal of the season.
The Geordies were still celebrating reaching the Carabao Cup final — but the Toon balloon was punctured inside a minute as Blues stormed into the lead.
Kieran Dowell fired in a deep corner and Keshi Anderson rose unchallenged to nod the ball back into the box.
Right-back Ethan Laird fired in a shot which took a wicked deflection off Callum Wilson and the ball flew high into the roof of Nick Pope’s net.
St Andrew’s went ballistic as Wilson cursed his luck on his first start for 280 days, while Laird celebrated only the third goal of his career.
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The Magpies had been knocked out of the FA Cup by clubs from a lower division 32 times — only Everton (42 times) have suffered more.
Meanwhile, Birmingham had eliminated top-flight clubs 23 times — second only to Millwall and Southampton (25 each).
So Newcastle should really have seen the danger signs.
Chris Davies’ Blues played with the swagger of a team riding high at the top of League One and unbeaten in 18 games.
The Geordies were clearly rattled and Dan Burn earned an early booking for trying to swap shirts with Scott Wright, during the action!
From the free-kick, Christoph Klarer headed down Marc Leonard’s delivery and Anderson’s shot deflected off Burns but was brilliantly pushed away by Pope.
That turned out to be a significant stop because it gave the Magpies the platform to stun Birmingham with a quick double to seize the lead in five crazy minutes.
Wilson went on a rampaging run and swept in a low cross which Bailey Peacock-Farrell decided not to come for.
Big mistake! Because William Osula cut the ball back from the far post to Willock whose shot was clawed out by Peacock-Farrell in the 21st minute.
There was then a delayed reaction until far-side assistant referee Nigel Lugg decided to step in and flagged for a goal.
It took a few seconds for the Toon Army to cotton on to what had just happened — then they went bonkers.
Blues looked to have a legitimate grievance as the assistant ref was behind play and — without goal-line technology — could only have guessed that the whole of the ball crossed the whole of the line.
Birmingham were still reeling when they suddenly found themselves behind.
Osula showed a fabulous first touch to cushion Pope’s long clearance and fired in a shot which Peacock-Farrell beat out.
The ball was recycled by Tino Livramento who centred and, although Osula got his feet tangled in front of goal, the ball broke to Wilson on 26 minutes.
He somehow got his boot up to shoulder height to force the ball over the line to mark his return with a goal.
Willock thought he had given the Magpies a two-goal cushion but he bundled the ball home from an offside position after Burn’s header sent him through.
Jay Stansfield headed wide with the goal at his mercy before Wright drilled the ball weakly into the turf, allowing Pope to save.
Yet there was nothing timid about the goal that rocked St Andrew’s five minutes before half-time as Iwata scored a sensational equaliser that will go down in Blues folklore.
Leonard’s cross was headed out by Matt Targett and from 22 yards Iwata smashed in a screamer which flew into the roof of Pope’s net to leave the goalie helpless.
There were shades of Ronnie Radford’s never-to-be-forgotten FA Cup banger for Hereford about the Japanese midfielder’s sensational strike.
Tempers flared on the stroke of half-time, resulting in bookings for Osula and Anderson.
The second half was not as frantic as the first, mainly due to a lengthy stoppage for Leonard, who was carried off after taking a heavy knock in a clash with Lewis Miley.
There was a real edge to this tie now and Stansfield, then Klarer, were both booked for bundling Fabian Schar and Willock into the advertising boards. Those bookings sandwiched a yellow card for Willock for going in late on Laird and sub Willum Willumsson joined him for a late challenge on Willock.
Brum chief Davies made a trio of substitutions but it was Newcastle who got the pay-off as Willock fired them back in front with his second goal of the night on 82 minutes.
Sean Longstaff beat Ben Davies in a 50-50 for Livramento’s through pass and the ball fell to Willock, who drilled it through Peacock-Farrell’s legs.
Newcastle thought they had finally killed off Blues when Jacob Murphy rounded Peacock-Farrell but his shot was cleared off the line by Davies.
But they held firm to keep their dream of another Wembley appearance to add to the Carabao Cup final.
HOW THEY LINED UP
BIRMINGHAM: Peacock-Farrell, Cochrane, Davies, Klarer, Laird, Leonard (Willumsson 62), Iwata (Hanley 84), Anderson (May 76), Dowell, Wright (Bielik 77), Stansfield (Dykes 77).
NEWCASTLE: Pope, Targett, Burn (Schar 55), Krafth, Livramento, Miley, Guimaraes (Tonali 46), Longstaff, Willock, Wilson (Murphy 55), Osula (Isak 104).
