EDDIE HOWE admits Newcastle United’s FA Cup quarter-final draw was far from ideal – but is nevertheless confident his side can spring a surprise against Manchester City.

The Magpies’ reward for beating Blackburn Rovers on penalties on Tuesday night was a trip to the Etihad Stadium to take on Pep Guardiola’s reigning cup winners.

Newcastle will start as strong outsiders when they face City for a place in the semi-finals on March 16, but Howe is backing his players to pull off an upset.

“I was driving at the time (of the draw) and almost swerved off the road,” said the Magpies boss. “Look, it wasn’t the draw we wanted, that’s for sure. I don’t think any team wants to play Manchester City four times in a season.

“But we’re looking forward to the game, and I believe we can beat anybody when we’re at our best. We’ve had three really tight games against them this year.”

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“When you have time to analyse things and go through it like you do mentally, you realise that to win the FA Cup, you probably have to beat Manchester City at some stage in the competition.

“That’s been moved forward from our view, and I just think we have to look at it as a game where we have to give everything to try to win. It will be difficult, but we can do it.”

Newcastle have had some extremely bad luck in the cup draws this season. They faced Manchester City and Manchester United in the Carabao Cup before eventually going out to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and were placed in the ‘Group of Death’ in the Champions League alongside Paris St Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan.

Having travelled to Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn already, their latest FA Cup draw handed them a fourth successive away game in the competition, but Howe is adamant he is not feeling sorry for himself as he looks ahead to the trip to City.

“I don’t want to get a violin out and start feeling sorry for myself,” he said. “Absolutely not. The cup draw is random, and you get who you get. We now have to make the best of that situation.

“I’m certainly not a person that sits there and has that mentality, and goes, ‘Oh, everything’s against us’. I sort of want that feeling internally, that everything’s against us, and I want to use that positively.

“But it’s a cup draw and we’re in it. That’s the beauty of it – we’re still in the competition, we’re not beaten yet, and we’ll keep fighting to the end.”