NEWCASTLE might have suffered their first defeat of the season as they crashed out of the Carling Cup in dramatic fashion at Blackburn last night, but Alan Pardew claims his side still left Ewood Park with their heads held high after the most remarkable game of their season so far.

The Magpies scored two stoppage-time goals to send the game into extra-time, with last-gasp strikes from Danny Guthrie and Yohan Cabaye cancelling out goals from Ruben Rochina and Ayegbeni Yakubu.

They fell behind again in the extra period, but Peter Lovenkrands' penalty tied the game up again, only for Gael Givet's 119th-minute header to settle a seven-goal thriller.

The result means Newcastle have seen one of their two realistic routes to silverware disappear, along with an unbeaten run that had stretched back to April's trip to Anfield.

However, while Pardew is unhappy with the tag of being an unlucky loser, he feels his players can be rightly proud of their efforts in a topsy-turvy encounter.

"If we were going to go out of the cup, that's how to go out of it," said the Magpies manager. "We gave absolutely everything, but sometimes you can't win every game.

"I don't like the idea of being a gallant loser to be honest, and we haven't really had that too often this season thankfully.

"But it was a fantastic effort, and I'm sure all the fans who came to the game will have appreciated the effort that was put in and the commitment to try to turn things around. We took everything that was thrown at us and came out fighting, but unfortunately it wasn't our day."

While the game was eventually settled in a chaotic final 35 minutes, Newcastle could point to two controversial refereeing decisions midway through the second half as crucial moments that ultimately had a major effect.

Martin Olsson appeared to handle a cross from Sylvain Marveaux, before Chris Samba hauled down Demba Ba in the penalty area. Referee Robert Madley failed to penalise either infringement, and minutes later, Blackburn won a penalty of their own when the official penalised Tim Krul for a foul on David Goodwillie, even though Pardew was adamant the Newcastle goalkeeper had touched the ball.

"To be 2-0 down was galling," he said. "We had a couple of penalty shouts and when Demba turned Samba, I definitely thought he had hold of his arm. I thought it was a penalty and, to compound that not being given, having seen the video of their penalty, I'm sure Tim played the ball.

"It wasn't a penalty at the other end, and that put us really on the back foot. But the players just don't know when to give in and they kept pressing and pressing to the end."

Guthrie's low strike set up the recovery, and Cabaye's perfectly-judged free-kick set up extra-time for the third Carling Cup game in a row.

Penalties were beckoning after Lovenkrands cancelled out Morten Gamst Pedersen's deflected set-piece, but Newcastle's defence switched off with seconds left with devastating consequences.

Samba nodded Pedersen's free-kick across goal, and Givet was unmarked as he nodded home from inside the six-yard box.

"It was really just tiredness at the end that cost us the game," said Pardew. "We just lacked concentration on that last set-play. Samba is a massive threat, but unfortunately we just didn't react to him winning that header.

"But I couldn't fault the players because they'd put in a magnificent effort by that stage. Sadly, it just wasn't meant to be for us."