EDDIE NEWTON was the hero as Chelsea sent 10 man Premiership leaders Newcastle crashing out of the English FA Cup in a dramatic penalty shoot out at St James Park last night.

Despite having Darren Peacock sent off for bringing down John Spencer on the hour, enabling Dennis Wise to cancel out Philippe Albert's opener, Newcastle looked set for a fourth round trip to QPR when Peter Beardsley converted another penalty two minutes later.

But the loss of Peacock became crucial as Newcastle, unsurprisingly, tired and although Pavel Srnicek performed wonders in their goal, he could not prevent Ruud Gull it forcing extra time a minute from the end.

Newcastle somehow held on to take the game to its final heart stopping conclusion, but there their luck ran out. Beardsley crashed against the bar with their first penalty, Steve Watson's effort was saved, so with David Lee and Wise hammering home, Chelsea were in the driving seat. John Beresford and Albert kept Newcastle's hopes alive, but Chelsea were not going to let the opportunity slip and with former Magpie Gavin Peacock steering home, the stage was set for Newton.

The mid fielder did not disappoint, calmly sending Srnicek the wrong way to finish off the Geordies.

Although it could have gone either way, Chelsea possibly shaded it, as Newcastle missed the driving influence of Rob Lee, Beardsley dropping back and Paul Kitson partnering Les Ferdinand up front.

With Chelsea composed, compact, looking to break with real menace and showing why they have become so hard to beat, it looked set to be a long night from the opening moments.

Chelsea were the first to threaten after 22 minutes, Wise picking out Dan Petrescu, but Srnicek saved the Romanian's cross shot.

Newcastle's instant response from Ferdinand was quite spectacular. The England man, who had made the replay necessary in Stamford Bridge stoppage time, took Ginola's pass with his back to goal and let fly with a shot which made the upright shudder.

So it was against the run of play after Peacock bad been booked for dissent that Newcastle took the lead three minutes before the break. Ferdinand took Barton's pass and turned into space before being brought crashing to the ground by Lee, who was rightly booked.

Chelsea took an age to form their wall and referee Stephen Lodge failed to move them back 10 yards, but while the line up was close, it crumbled dreadfully, Albert's firm left footer going through the middle and taking enough of a deflection off Wise to wrong foot Hitchcock.

In the 62nd minute the game seemed to have tilted in Chelsea's favour. Petrescu sent Spencer away and when Peacock brought the Scot down, the penalty was given instantly.

Lodge was equally certain that Peacock had to go for a second bookable offence and before the boos had died down, Wise rolled home from 12 yards.

Watson reverted to a defensive role and Chelsea looked good, yet two minutes later the ball was back in Newcastle's court and Chelsea's net as Lodge, who attracted Hoddle's wrath by allowing four minutes of injury time at Stamford Bridge, put himself back in Chelsea's list of infamy.

Kitson seemed to be going nowhere when the ball came in from the left and although Lee did put his hand in the striker's back, his fall was dramatic. The referee was convinced, pointing straight to the spot again, and Beardsley was in no mood to look the gift horse in the mouth, sending Hitchcock the wrong way.

But Chelsea poured forward and Srnicek excelled himself to save from Gull it and Spencer and to keep out a Hughes header. But it could not last and with barely a minute to go, Newcastle failed to deal with Terry Phelan's deep cross and Gull it reacted first, forcing home from close range to claim the extra 30 minutes.