NEWCASTLE UNITED face a FA Cup replay at St James’ Park after a frustrating afternoon in Birmingham when Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic had to be carried off on a stretcher.

The Magpies were unable to hold on to the lead Daryl Murphy secured in the fifth minute when he hammered in his first goal since his switch from Ipswich in the summer.

It was during that incident when Mitrovic was left on the floor requiring treatment after appearing to collide with goalkeeper Adam Legzdins. He suffered a severe cut to his leg. 

Birmingham battled back after that to pull level through former Middlesbrough striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, who could have won the tie late, with three minutes remaining of the first half.

Newcastle face a replay with Birmingham at St James’ on Wednesday, January 18. That means the trip to Brentford, scheduled for January 16, will be brought forward to its original date of Saturday, January 14 at 3pm (not televised).

Newcastle could not have asked for a better start to this third round tie. Despite eight changes and a tinkering with the system, the visitors looked the brighter and more dangerous for much of the first half.

Mitrovic had already come close to scoring from a deep cross before the incident which saw Newcastle take the lead and the Serbian had to go off after a collision with goalkeeper Legzdins.

Achraf Lazaar’s corner was not properly dealt with by the Birmingham defence and eventually Murphy was on hand to force over the line from close-range, while Mitrovic was lying floored in the area before being stretchered off needing oxygen.

There were a couple of half chances for Newcastle shortly after that. Birmingham, however, stayed in touch and suddenly started to cause problems to a team which had not really played together before.

It was not so much the new-look three central defender system that looked shaky, more the midfield in front of them with Cheik Tiote and Jack Colback guilty a few times of gifting possession to a blue shirt.

Tiote, whose only other 15 minutes this season was at Aston Villa in September, was guilty of the worst of those. Goalkeeper Matz Sels saved from David Davis the first time and Grant Hanley blocked an effort from Jutkiewicz the second time.

The equaliser came from the left hand side, though. Jonathan Grounds, another Boro old boy, sent in a teasing low cross for Jutkiewicz to pounce on and convert from close range and Newcastle knew then that they had a game on their hands.

After a tame second half that had very few chances, Birmingham could have won it in the closing stages through the former Middlesbrough striker.

Jutkiewicz somehow headed wide from close range after a fantastic cross from Josh Dacres-Cogley and then the front-man saw another glancing header drop the wrong side of the far post. A replay it is.

BIRMINGHAM CITY (4-2-3-1): Legzdins; Spector (Dacres-Cogley 43), Shotton, Robinson, Grounds; Fabbrini (Stewart 79), Kieftenbeld, Gleeson, Davis, Adams; Jutkiewicz. Subs (not used): Kuszczak (gk), Tesche, Cotterill, Brown, Morrison.

NEWCASTLE UNITED (3-5-2): Sels; Lascelles, Hanley, Haidara (Ritchie 69); Yedlin, Tiote (Hayden 65), Colback, Anita, Lazaar; Murphy, Mitrovic (Gouffran 10). Subs (not used): Darlow (gk), Dummett, Clark, Gayle.