Newcastle 1-2 Brighton

&c

How badly can a game of football go? Let's tot up some of today's misfortunes.

We lost - so we're out of an FA Cup with only Man City from the "big boys" remaining.

We would have had a home draw (against Forest or Ipswich) in the quarters.

We played an extra half hour of extra time when we looked dead on our feet after an hour.

Anthony Gordon sent off - misses the League Cup final.

Lewis Hall missing with an ankle injury, set to see a specialist.

Isak forced off with "body tightness".

We thought we'd won it in second half stoppage time, only for Fabian Schar's superb volley to be ruled out for offside (our second disallowed goal of the afternoon).

We don't seem to be able to change a game with substitutions whatsoever.

So where does this all leave us? Well, absolutely scrambling for any semblance of form with one game to go before the Cup final, for which we're now seemingly missing our whole left flank.

Lewis Hall will be a desperate miss if he does indeed miss out, and although Howe spoke of considering an appeal against Gordon's red, that seems futile.

What on earth he was thinking I have no idea - for somebody who prides himself on winding up opponents, to lose his head at something so innocuous, when the ball was dead no less, was borderline unforgivable, though missing the final will be punishment enough for him.

The flag was up for offside as Gordon chased a loose ball into the box and was given a bump from van Hecke, then reacted by shoving the defender forcefully in the head.

It wasn't dangerous and the only possible mitigation is that van Hecke did have his head lowered but the red was justified.

I don't think it's the kind of thing a player should miss a final for, but them's the rules and he lost his head at exactly the wrong moment.

Deja vu all over again after Nick Pope's rush of blood to the head before the final two years ago.

I won't over-analyse the rest of the game - we were ok but looked determined to shoot ourselves in the foot once again and we're losing form at exactly the wrong time.

The final seems to be weighing heavily on us again, and if we're not careful, it'll cost us the game at Wembley and our league position.

Time to regroup, calm down and start another big push lads.