Newcastle's potential Fleetwood tie makes tonight's Everton clash even bigger

Newcastle United will travel to Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals if we get past Everton tonight.

Wednesday night's draw paired the winners of our trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium with the League Two side, with the last-eight ties scheduled for the week commencing 14 December.

Fleetwood's place is already secured after their penalty shootout win over Arsenal on Tuesday, when former skipper Bruno Guimaraes saw his spot-kick saved following a 1-1 draw.

It would also be a new opponent for Newcastle United. The clubs have never met in a competitive fixture, so victory tonight would set up a very first meeting.

Does the draw change the thinking for tonight?

It certainly makes the opportunity harder to ignore. Win at Everton and we'd be going to a League Two ground with a place in the semi-finals at stake. For all the obvious banana skin potential, that's a draw we'd have happily taken.

Arsenal have just shown what happens if you fail to get the job done there, but we don't need to pretend every possible quarter-final opponent would present the same challenge. A semi-final looks very achievable if we can produce two proper performances.

Jaissle was already talking about fielding his strongest possible side before the draw. In Tuesday's press conference, he said the approach was to "play with the best possible line-up" and "go all in". This should only strengthen that thinking.

We're somehow eighth despite a league campaign that has often felt much less convincing. It still looks like a transitional season, with Jaissle trying to find consistency, but that doesn't mean a cup run has to wait until everything else clicks.

I'd like to see us give this a real go. The draw has opened up a chance we'd be kicking ourselves to waste, and it makes tonight feel that bit bigger. Fleetwood can wait, first we need to turn up at Everton.