It was the show. And it is definitely not a colchester at home in league one.
The city of Birmingham attenuated the lights just before the beginning and made a DJ interpreted rap music in the dark while a few street players wandered.
Not Tom Brady, maybe, but St Andrew's, a place where they wondered, a few years ago, if there was really going to be a future, it shone in the light of smartphone torches and echoed the most cacophonic noise.
This party represented “a precursor to the future,” said the interim executive director of the club in the middle of the week. This club and this city would be 'The football history of the next decade' that predicted.
There was a decent football to support those bold claims. An opening goal of the gods within 43 seconds and performances by Voloki Iwata, Keshi Anderson and Ethan Laird to boost Newcastle strongly.
But it was not as emphatic as we had anticipated. The £ 15 million striker of Birmingham, Jay Sansfield, the jewel of his crown, did not take a shot of anger. Newcastle also knows a bit about newly acquired wealth. It was their depth in reserve that led them to a fifth round of the FA Cup, to go with that final of the Cábao Cup.
There was a significant performance, and two goals, by Joe Willock in his difficult stop season, stained with injuries, which had begun with his express ambitions to play for England. There was a claim on more openings from the Danish international sub-21 Will Osula, who really seized the night.
These impacts were instantaneously. Birmingham's plan was to go like hell in a Premier League team with nine changes in the Cup Cup Cáabao over arsenal in the middle of the week, and for a while it worked.
A fog wrapped in this place when the lights risen again, you could see the steam of the breath of the players and Newcastle was stunned by what they first found.
Not only an opening goal sent in just 43 seconds in the middle of a little Calamite defense: Keshi Anderson granted the freedom of Birmingham to the corner of Kieran Dowell for Ethan Laird, who was released to break a volley that Callum Wilson cut Nick Pope – but attacking impulse they fought to face.
The advance of Scott Wright beyond Dan Burn, a loan here 12 years ago, caught attention. Wright clinging desperately to the Scottish shirt as he extended around him and took a yellow card. There was the physicality of Keshi Anderson on the left, agile and physical, and, naturally enough, the Quicksilver £ 1 million Japanese Volume Iwata, a jewel here throughout the season.
It was a measure of the depth of the Howe squad that Newcastle not only clung, but turned that setback into an advantage. He had issued one of those warnings for his holders that this was a rare opportunity. Howe has not seemed ready to trust Usula, the summer support firm of £ 10 million Sheffield United, and has indicated that the player is not happy with that. Osula will not die wondering about his third beginning of the season.
Birmingham seemed to imagine his possibilities against him when Cochrane overturned him in the first minutes, but the 21 -year -old led against them with energy. His unpredictability is not always a good thing. You wouldn't bet the house for him. But he was the least without obstacles for sound and fury everywhere. He was the one who cut Willock to match after a driving through the center of the Birmingham field by Callum Wilson, also taking advantage of a rare opportunity here.
The equalizer was wrapped in chaos, with goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell awarded to have been behind his line when he blocked Willock's shot. A very close call, without goal line technology to govern it. Osula had diverted towards the path of the shot and almost conspired to block it. He was also involved five minutes later when Wilson defeated the goalkeeper to a high ball, navigating it for experts with his right boot.
Newcastle seemed to be backing control when Iwata provided a moment of brilliance to match, clinging to a ball directed by Matt Targett to beat Nick Pope from 30 yards. Better to finish from the local team would have put Newcastle on the back foot, because they certainly had other opportunities. Stansfield sent an opportunity from six yards an opportunity provided by Iwata. A great moment. Wright was also unmarked at a short distance when he lost.
Birmingham was under severe pressure before Newcastle found a third. Lewis Miley led to the box but shot directly the guard. And then the winner: Tino Livramento sending Sean Longstoff in the overlap, defender Ben Davies has no complete contact and prevents him from sliding a gunfire ball for Willock, whose end was acute.
There could have been a Newcastle room. The substitute Jacob Murphy ran on Peacock-Farrell after Cochrane lost a long diagonal and took the Davies withdrawing out of the line after the striker, the goalkeeper.
Newcastle fans hurried to sing. “Premier League, you're laughing,” they sang when their team closed the game. But ambition, wealth and imagination permeate this place. Birmingham will tell you that they have just begun.