Miles Starforth's match analysis: Newcastle United 3 Luton Town 1

By The Newsroom
Published 8th Jan 2018, 11:00 BST
Newcastle United's Ayoze Perez celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the FA Cup, third round match at St James' Park.Newcastle United's Ayoze Perez celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the FA Cup, third round match at St James' Park.
Newcastle United's Ayoze Perez celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the FA Cup, third round match at St James' Park.
There's a £20million prize pot at Newcastle United for winning the FA Cup.

But money was the last thing on the minds of the club’s players as they took on Luton Town on Saturday.

They just wanted to play. And win.

Few on Tyneside expect six-times FA Cup winners Newcastle to reach Wembley this season.

But this was a start.

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A crowd of 47,069, including 7,500 from Luton, turned up to see a proper FA Cup tie, and they saw one.

United – who won 3-1 to book a place in the fourth round – didn’t have it all their own way. Luton had a go, and the League Two leaders – and their fans – deserve credit for playing their part in a decent third-round tie.

Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez set the tone by naming a strong starting XI.

And the team made a strong start, though they had a let-off when the visitors failed to take advantage of an misjudged kick from debutant Freddie Woodman.

United, otherwise, played with intensity and intelligence.

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They probed away and took the lead in the 30th minute through a goal from Ayoze Perez, who poked the ball home after Marek Stech spilled a free-kick from Dwight Gayle.

Perez soon scored another, and Jonjo Shelvey swept the ball home after a good attacking move involving Perez and Gayle.

Luton saw more of the ball after the break and Danny Hylton pulled a goal back.