PNE boss Grayson: We made things easy for Newcastle

Matt Ritchie fires in Newcastle's third from the penalty spot.

The PNE boss suffered the heaviest defeat of his time in charge with Alan Browne seeing red for an elbow on Jack Colback midway through the first half shortly after Aleksandar Mitrovic had put the hosts in front.

Grayson, who made nine changes from the win over Norwich at the weekend, said: “We knew we had to be patient and be dogged for the first 20 minutes and we did that.

“But we gave the crowd a lift and the players a lift and from then on it went from bad to worse.

“Straight after the free header we went down to 10 men and that made it very difficult because they’ve got some really good players who hurt you in the final third.

“Their budget is probably 10, 11 times as much as ours.

“That’s no excuse it’s just what Newcastle are, a magnificent football club that are striving to get back to the Premiership.

“But we gifted them a lot of easy goals and opportunities tonight which isn’t like us.

“A lot of those players have played in the last few weeks in good results but we’ve not done it collectively as a team tonight.”

Grayson had no complaints with Browne’s red card, referee Andrew Madley having no hesitation in showing the Irishman a straight red card.

The PNE boss said: “I didn’t actually see it (at the time) but I’ve seen it since but Alan’s gone up and led with his arm and as he’s turned he’s caught Jack Colback.

“I’ve got no complaints, you can’t do that sort of thing.

“He didn’t do it intentionally but he’s caught the player and it’s made for a real long night.

“We’re disappointed. We wanted to get to the next round, coming here was an opportunity, a difficult one, we’re just disappointed with how we played and for the supporters that have travelled across tonight.”