Newcastle United 2 Nottingham Forest 3 (AET)

As is so often the case with the Magpies, they were the masters of their own downfall, with a series of desperate defensive errors enabling Nottingham Forest to triumph in extra-time.

Jason Cummings’ two first-half strikes, which overturned an early effort from Aleksandar Mitrovic, owed much to some statuesque Newcastle defending, and while Rolando Aarons’ equaliser meant the scores finished level at the end of normal time, Forest profited from more Magpies sloppiness in the extra period.

Tyler Walker glanced home Jack Hobbs’ header from a corner to ensure one of Newcastle’s two routes to silverware this season was removed at the very first stage. That Rafael Benitez’s side are still waiting for their first victory of the campaign after three outings is even more alarming.

Benitez’s decision to make ten changes for last night’s game means it would be wrong to read too much into the result, but the sight of the likes of Grant Hanley, Jesus Gamez and Henri Saivet struggling against Championship opposition nevertheless provided a near summation of where Newcastle find themselves a week ahead of the closure of the transfer window.

Benitez’s reserves are not good enough, and on the evidence of last weekend’s league defeat at Huddersfield, a fair few of his first-choice players are not much better either. Does Mike Ashley have have either the funds or inclination to do something about the situation in the next seven days? If the answer is no, then a League Cup exit could quickly become the least of Newcastle’s worries.

Without further additions, Benitez will have to rely on players he had been hoping to upgrade. Such as Mitrovic. The Newcastle boss has always been sceptical about the Serbian’s effectiveness, but he appears to be stuck with him, and will therefore be hoping for more of what the striker produced to open the scoring after just three minutes.

Aarons’ direct running caused Forest’s defenders to back off, but there was still plenty to do when the ball was squared to Mitrovic on the edge of the area. The striker has slashed at similar chances in the past, but calmly allowed the ball to run across his body before drilling home a clinical low finish to claim his first goal since February.

It should have enabled Newcastle’s makeshift team to settle and resulted in an easy night. Instead, it masked an otherwise lacklustre start and created a false sense of security that was well and truly demolished when Forest scored two goals in the space of three minutes either side of the half-hour mark.

Newcastle’s defence creaked all night, with Hanley looking a yard off the pace and Chancel Mbemba regularly finding himself out of position. Karl Darlow saved from Ben Brereton in the seventh minute after the striker broke clear of the Magpies’ back four and got down well again midway through the opening period to keep out Cummings’ low drive. It did not take long, however, for Cummings to extract his revenge.

Newcastle’s defenders wasted two good opportunities to clear, enabling wing-back Eric Lichaj to shuffle the ball infield to Zac Clough. He chipped a deft cross into the area, and Cummings was completely unmarked as he glanced home a delicate header.

That was bad from a home perspective, but worse was to follow as Cummings scored again in the simplest of fashions a couple of minutes later.

Danny Fox lumped a routine long ball forward, but Hanley and Mbemba were caught dreadfully flat-footed as Cummings galloped clear. Darlow was slow leaving his line, and was trapped in no-man’s land as Forest’s summer signing from Hibernian lofted the ball into an empty net.

With Benitez growing increasingly furious on the sidelines, the errors kept on coming. Hanley and Gamez got themselves in an almighty mess in their own area, enabling Clough to fire in a shot that was saved. Even then Cummings came close to scoring, with his follow-up effort deflecting narrowly over.

Newcastle could easily have been out of the game before the break, but they headed into the interval on level terms thanks to a moment of brilliance from Aarons.

The winger was the Magpies’ most polished attacker throughout his 76 minutes on the field, and after picking up possession from Mo Diame on the stroke of half-time, he twisted past his opponent before unleashing a searing 22-yard drive that arrowed into the top left-hand corner.

While Aarons saw plenty of the ball, Jacob Murphy was quieter on the opposite flank, but the £12.5m summer signing from Norwich came close at the start of the second half. His curled effort from the edge of the box was destined for the top corner before Forest goalkeeper Jordan Smith flung out an arm to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Murphy threatened again shortly before the hour mark, but while he ghosted past two opponents as if they were not there, his shot ballooned into the middle tier of the Gallowgate End. He failed to keep another shot down with 13 minutes left, and his profligacy meant Newcastle’s second-half superiority was not reflected in the scoreline.

The Magpies were much more effective in the second period, with the previously-anonymous Saivet turning in an improved display as he was pushed further up the field, but Forest came within inches of claiming a winner in the final minute of normal time.

Cummings was aiming for a hat-trick as he curled in a free-kick from the corner of the box, and he could hardly have come closer to claiming it as the ball cannoned off the crossbar with Darlow beaten.

That meant extra-time, and while Mitrovic wasted a decent early opportunity as he failed to get a close-range shot away, Newcastle’s defensive shortcomings proved their undoing once again.

Jack Hobbs rose unopposed at the back post to meet a right-wing corner, and Walker reacted quickest to divert the defender’s header into the net via a glanced header of his own.