How Bournemouth's shootout loss 'completed a circle of sorts'

Key Highlights

• Having beaten Bromsgrove Rovers and Brentford in the first two rounds, Bournemouth were handed a third successive home tie against Newcastle.
• A goalless draw at Dean Court was followed by a replay at St James' Park which was abandoned after 17 minutes because of (literally) fog on the Tyne. So eight days later, the sides tried again and as it was the only Cup tie on that night, it was naturally chosen for live broadcast by Sky Sports, with extended highlights on BBC One's Sportsnight.1992's viewers were treated to an entertaining 2-2 draw and, as in 2025-26, one of Newcastle's first five penalties in 1992 was blazed too high, while another was saved by the Cherries goalkeeper diving to his right. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, Bournemouth's 2026 penalty takers were not able to match the success from 12 yards enjoyed by their counterparts from 1992 (who scored four spot-kicks out of four to complete a 4-3 win) and the Magpies booked their place in the next round. It ends a run of five successful penalty competitions for the Cherries, whose previous loss in a shootout was to Portsmouth in the Football League Trophy in 2012. Since then, they had overcome Preston (2015), Forest Green (2019), Crystal Palace (2020) and Norwich (2022) in the League Cup, as well as Wolves in last season's FA Cup fifth round.