Jonjo Shelvey shrugged off Newcastle United's struggles at Newport County - and insisted that "winning ugly" is sometimes a necessity.
The former England and Liverpool man gave the ball away in midfield for the opening goal and looked sloppy in possession at times before conjuring up a fantastic goal to level the game in Wales.
Shelvey then also scored in the penalty shoot-out to help seal a place in the quarter-finals of the League Cup for only the third time in 14 years.
He said afterwards: "We knew it was never going to be easy coming here.
"They have made it tough against a lot of Premier League and Championship teams coming down here.
"We knew it would be a tough game and we got caught early doors. We made more hard work of it than we should have done."
Shelvey also defended Steve Bruce's tactics on a night in which he was heavily criticised via social media.
He said: "We know we have character going back two or three years.
"And maybe we would have lumped it then but the gaffer wants us to play.
"We have taken a lot of criticism over the last couple of weeks over not creating enough chances."
Shelvey netted his first of the season with a wonderful curling effort to haul his team back into a potential banana skin cup tie.
He told NUFC TV: "I just got the ball off (Joey) and just chopped the fella.
"Then I chopped him again, brought it back on to my right, I saw that end of the goal and tried whipping it to the far post. It's gone in."
And speaking on the penalty shoot-out victory, Shelvey reflected: "I wasn't nervous. We practised them and I felt when it went to pens we'd win.
"Mark Gillespie did well in the penalty shoot-out and it's his hometown club so we're all happy."
