Newcastle's defeat came after Rafael Benitez made six changes from the side that had won at Leeds last weekend, and the Spaniard conceded he had perhaps erred with his team selection.
But, personally, I would rather taste League Cup success if it means a blip on Saturday.
Jason Steele made second-half saves to deny Jonjo Shelvey and Ciaran Clark, and Dwight Gayle should have done much better when he failed to find the target with a stoppage-time shot, but Newcastle were uncharacteristically lethargic as they saw their lead at the top of the table cut to two points.
Benitez said: "It was very disappointing because I didn't like the way we started the game or the way the game was stopping all the time with free-kicks and corners.
"I didn't like our reaction when we were losing, and we have to do better. I didn't like the chances we didn't take, and I didn't like my decisions. But we cannot change things. We have to analyse what happened before the next game and make sure we don't make the same mistakes.
"I knew that when you lose a game and you change your players, everyone blames the manager. I knew that. But in the same time, we have to show more character and more personality.
"We didn't control the game the way we have been doing it. If you don't perform at the level you have to perform, you have to give credit to them."