Newcastle United have blown a 'wonderful opportunity' to reach a cup semi-final and Steve Bruce fears his players 'might never get there again'.
The Magpies were bidding to reach the last four of the League Cup for the first time since 1976 against Championship high-fliers Brentford on Tuesday night.
Isaac Hayden insisted the players 'knew what was at stake' but you would not have known it by the way some of his team-mates ambled about as Newcastle suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat against Brentford's second-string.
Newcastle's passive approach served as a real contrast to the Bees' energy and fluidity at the Brentford Community Stadium and, at times, you wondered if it was the visitors who were battling it out in the second-tier rather than the other way round.
Few of these Newcastle players have played in a major cup semi-final before - let alone a final - and after facing lower league opposition in each round of the Carabao Cup this season, they may never have a better opportunity to do so again.
"They will realise that it's not often you can get to a final or a semi-final," Bruce told NUFC TV.
"They might never get there again so they've missed a wonderful opportunity in your career to win something, to achieve something.
"To get to a semi-final or a final doesn't come along very often but we simply have to look at ourselves and say, 'We haven't played well enough, especially over the last week or so'.
"We haven't been able to get the better of Brentford, which is obviously disappointing."
Newcastle have yet to contest a semi-final in the Ashley era and you have to go back to the Magpies' 4-1 defeat against Manchester United in 2005 for the last time the black-and-whites made it into the last four of the FA Cup.
Bruce's side now have a brutal run of fixtures to come against Man City, Liverpool and Leicester over the festive period before a trip to the Emirates to play Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup.
