'Everyone will be looking over their shoulders' - Howe

Bradford City manager Graham Alexander could not help but smile as he reflected on his side's 4-1 Carabao Cup loss at Newcastle United.

"You see the starting team that they put out," he said.

"As soon as we exchanged the teamsheets and we saw Bruno [Guimaraes] bring out the teamsheet, I thought, 'Right, OK, they're taking it properly. Real serious'."

Understandably so.

The holders were not about to underestimate the League One leaders - and did not want their defence of the trophy to end at the third-round stage. Not after a 70-year wait to win major domestic silverware.

Interestingly, Brazilians Guimaraes and Joelinton were the only starters on Wednesday night who also lined up when Newcastle beat Liverpool at Wembley to end that drought back in March.

However, such are the options now at head coach Eddie Howe's disposal, it proved a comfortable night, despite Bradford's efforts.

"The lads are very aware of the strength in depth," said Howe. "So everyone in their position will be looking over their shoulder going, 'If I don't play well today, there's someone else waiting to take my shirt'."

Newcastle have not always had such depth.

It was a different competition, of course, but they were knocked out by League One opposition in the FA Cup third round in both 2022 and 2023.

Yet Newcastle are a different side these days as defender Dan Burn knows only too well.

"Nothing changes whether we're playing Bradford or Barcelona," he wrote in his programme notes. "It's the exact same preparation and the same mentality.

"Top teams can rotate without too much changing and we've invested quite heavily in the squad now to hopefully enable us to do the same….whether that's the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup - whatever competition we're playing in, we're here to win."

Howe had the luxury of making seven changes from the weekend goalless Premier League draw at Bournemouth, yet Lewis Hall, Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman Joelinton, Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga started against Alexander's side.

That is even before mentioning William Osula, who scored two goals, or debutant keeper Aaron Ramsdale, who made a couple of important saves with the game at 0-0.

"You need that strength in depth," added Howe. "It keeps everyone on their toes. I don't think there can be any complacency when you play. A bad game can see you miss football and no-one wants that."

Newcastle ended up scoring as many goals in 90 minutes against Bradford as they did in their previous five games in all competitions combined.

It was the first time since April - a 5-0 win over Crystal Palace - they had bagged four goals in a single game and it could have been more as the dominant hosts had 27 shots, 11 efforts on target and 66 touches in the opposition box.

Newcastle face sterner tests ahead yet it still felt a noteworthy night to rebuild confidence in front of goal.

For context, a blunt attack mustered just a single shot on target against Bournemouth and the black-and-whites have only scored three times in their opening five league fixtures.

When it comes to shot conversion (5.6%) and big chance conversion (28.6%), Newcastle have posted some of the worst top-flight returns, while only Aston Villa have scored fewer goals (one).

But Joelinton and Danish forward Osula scored timely doubles here.

With three goals, the 22-year-old Osula is now the club's top scorer this term, having also found the net against champions Liverpool last month.

Given Yoane Wissa's absence with a knee injury, and record signing Nick Woltemade needing time to adjust to the physicality of the Premier League, it was a welcome performance from Osula, who attracted interest from Eintracht Frankfurt last month.

"He's very driven," said boss Howe. "Will has got great attitude to his work and his career. He's very ambitious, he wants to play as all players do, but he is now justifying that by his training performances and when he plays on the pitch.

"We have done a lot of work with him and will continue to do that for his benefit to try to get him to be the very best player he can be."