Newcastle 3 Birmingham 1: Jonjo Shelvey inspires Toon into FA Cup fourth round on his return from five-match ban

JONJO SHELVEY was back in business to help end Newcastle’s recent FA Cup shame.

The Toon had failed to win a third-round tie since beating Blackburn in 2012, much to the fury of their trophy-deprived fans.

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But Rafa Benitez’s boys last night finally made it through to the fourth round, inspired by returning star Shelvey.

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The midfielder had missed the previous five matches after being banned for racially abusing Wolves’ Romain Saiss, with his side only winning twice without him.

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And the stand-in skipper played a huge hand in all three goals.

Matt Ritchie — with a brace — and Yoan Gouffran were the men to benefit from Shelvey’s class. And it was more than enough to brush aside the Blues, despite David Cotterill’s second-half strike.

Defeat for Gianfranco Zola’s men means the Italian has failed to win any of the seven games he has taken charge of since controversially replacing Gary Rowett last month. But Championship table-toppers Newcastle can now look forward to another winnable tie at Oxford on Saturday week.

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Should they see off the League One side, they will be into the last 16 for the first time under Mike Ashley’s ten-year ownership.

Victory will certainly have been a relief for Benitez, who gambled with his team selection, handing senior debuts to three kids.

Winger Yasin Ben El-Mhanni, 21, was signed last summer and is known for showing off his skills on YouTube, once even flying out to Barcelona to show Neymar some tricks for an advert.

The other new boys were local lad Dan Barlaser — on his 20th birthday — and Scottish defender Stuart Findlay, 21.

But at least Benitez could call on the experience of Shelvey, 24, wearing the armband in place of the benched Jamaal Lascelles.

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It was his defence-splitting throughball that led to Newcastle’s ninth-minute penalty opener. Gouffran, playing in a striker’s role, collected Shelvey’s pass, only to be brought down by Blues back-up keeper Adam Legzdins.

Ritchie, one of only three survivors from Saturday’s win at Brentford, stepped up to fire his spot-kick down the middle.

Shelvey forced Legzdins into a save with an outrageous 40-yard strike. Then Gouffran hit the post with an improvised backheel.

But the Frenchman would get his goal 11 minutes before the break, taking Shelvey’s weighted free-kick, flicking the ball up, and volleying in under Legzdins. Ritchie struck the far post with a fine strike but Newcastle were punished for their wastefulness as Cotterill got Brum back into the game 19 minutes from time.

The Welsh winger volleyed past Matz Sels after Maikel Kieftenbeld nodded down sub Lukas Jutkiewicz’s chipped cross.

Che Adams then headed on to the roof of the net and Jutkiewicz also came close for the visitors.

But Ritchie tapped in from Shelvey’s injury-time cross.

WHAT THEY SAID

Benitez on Shelvey: "It's always important to have numbers, especially someone like him. He can make the others play.

"We saw his quality and we saw his passing. It's another big boost for us."

Zola also praised the Newcastle midfielder, saying: "When he's on the pitch, he runs the show. He's very influential."