Eddie Howe hailed Birmingham City and the ‘electric atmosphere’ at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park after his Newcastle United side scraped into the FA Cup fifth round.

Joe Willock netted the winner in the 82nd minute after Blues had twice scared the Magpies in the first half. Ethan Laird gave Blues the lead in the first minute and Tomoki Iwata drew Blues level at 2-2 with an outrageous strike just before half-time.

“It was a really tricky game,” said Newcastle chief Howe. “We knew it was going to be tough and we conceded after a minute, all your thoughts are confirmed really. The atmosphere then is electric in the stadium and I thought we did well to navigate the early part of the game because it was a difficult first half for us.

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“We didn’t have a second half with lots of opportunities so we needed to be clinical when it came and Joe was.”

Howe was complimentary of Blues and Chris Davies before the match and he repeated himself post-match. He said: “I like their style and I like the system they play. They’ve got some physical players as well which you need in the division that they’re in.”

Howe added: “We’re disappointed with the first goal. If you consider the amount of corners Arsenal had on Wednesday, we looked pretty solid, then to concede from the first set piece. I have to pay tribute to the strike for the second one. It was an unbelievable hit, I was right behind it.”