Eddie Howe was "desperate" to beat Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup, but felt he had no choice but to make changes to his team after sensing fatigue in the Arsenal draw and with the Carabao Cup clash with Leicester in mind.

Howe made eight changes to his Newcastle team at Hillsborough but his selection backfired as the Magpies were stunned by League One Owls, who advanced to the fourth round thanks to a quickfire double at the start of the second half from Josh Windass.

Substitute Bruno Guimaraes halved the deficit but Newcastle couldn't force an equaliser, with Chris Wood spurning a glorious late opportunity.

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Howe was gutted with the defeat but had no issues with the commitment of the players he picked.

He said: "It's a disappointing result for us. We gave it our all. I thought we created a number of chances but didn't take them, their keeper played very well.

"We always knew it was going to be a difficult game. We had to score the first goal, we didn't and that made it very difficult.

"We were desperate to win the game. I picked a team I thought was strong enough. I thought the moments and chances were there for us but we weren't clinical enough.

"I'd be the first to say if I thought it was a lack of effort or commitment. I saw a team that was committed and gave everything. We have some great professionals and they're hugely disappointed. For me it was our goalscoring that was the issue."

Asked whether he made so many changed with the Leicester game in mind, Howe said: "You pick it looking ahead to the future games of course. It's a quick turnaround to Leicester.

"I felt some fatigue in the Arsenal performance where they gave everything. It would have been unwise of me to pick the same team for this game and Leicester as well, I'm not sure the lads were physically able to do that."