Full-time: Leicester City 1 Newcastle United 0

IT’S January, it’s the FA Cup, so that can only mean one thing as far as Newcastle United are concerned.

For the fifth time in seven seasons the Magpies have crashed out of the competition at the first hurdle and once again their focus for the remainder of the campaign rests solely on the Premier League with 2015 barely a week old.

If the club was in a relegation scrap or competing for a place in Europe, the 4,000 travelling fans may have been able to stomach the latest in a long list of woeful FA Cup displays, but that’s not the case.

As early as 2pm on Saturday afternoon, the majority of those supporters who travelled probably knew what was about to unfold. Caretaker manager John Carver – overseeing his second game since Alan Pardew left to take over at Crystal Palace – made seven changes to the side that was held to a 3-3 draw at home to Burnley.

Fabricio Coloccini, Daryl Janmaat, Jack Colback, Moussa Sissoko and Ayoze Perez were missing from the team sheet, but while the starting XI still had plenty of experience the bench was littered with players from the development squad.

After watching Leonardo Ulloa give Leicester City a straight forward win, Carver insisted the first-team players not included in the squad were carrying knocks with the exception of Perez.

Sir Bobby Robson’s former assistant talked about how the demands of playing seven games since December 13 had taken its toll, but with a full week to prepare for the trip to Chelsea on Saturday and only seven games to play between now and March, his words did little to appease the fans that booed as he led to team over at full-time.

It was all too predictable at the King Power, and while the Magpies had a perfectly good goal chalked off, they did little to get back into the game once Ulloa had put Nigel Pearson’s side ahead six minutes before the break.

The move that led to Remy Cabella scoring was the only time Newcastle looked capable of opening up a team that sits four points from safety at the bottom of the Premier League, and it was another performance that did little to enhance Carver’s hopes of succeeding Pardew in the eyes of the fans.

The 49-year-old went public with his desire to become the club’s new head coach after the game, and if this was an interview for the position he put across a good case in the eyes of Ashley, who does not count cup competitions as a priority.

The supporters' reaction at the final whistle was on par with the one that followed the 4-0 drubbing at Southampton earlier in the season, while they made it quite clear throughout that they are fed up of watching disappointment after disappointment.

“We’re s*** and we’re sick of it” was chanted regularly in the second half and the dire situation was summed up by a measly return of two shots on target over 90 minutes.

The first fell to Emmanuel Riviere in the eighth minute, but he failed to capitalise on Ritchie De Laet’s poor headed clearance and left Ben Hamer with an easy save to make.

Moments later Tom Lawrence sent a dangerous corner into the box, but Ulloa couldn’t adjust his body enough and his rising shot flew over Jak Alnwick’s crossbar.

The young keeper hasn’t had the easiest time since he was thrust into the side to cover for injured duo Tim Krul and Rob Elliot and again he looked shaky when he punched the ball straight to Lawrence on the edge of the box.

To his relief the Leicester midfielder sliced his shot horribly wide, but it wasn’t long before Ulloa put pressure on his goal with a dangerous shot.

Newcastle’s best move of the match arrived in the 32nd minute and they had cause to feel aggrieved when Cabella’s low finish was ruled out by a late flag from the linesman.

Vurnon Anita broke down the right and sent a ball in for Adam Armstrong to cleverly back heel into the Frenchman’s path, but while they ran away to celebrate the goal was disallowed despite replays showing he was clearly onside.

It was a blow, no doubt about it, but from that moment Newcastle never really looked like scoring.

Ulloa managed to get a head on Matty James’ cross-cum-shot to flick the ball past Alnwick and after the break there was only one side that looked like scoring the second goal of the game.

To his credit, Alnwick made four impressive saves – the pick of the bunch a stunning full-stretch stop to keep out Chris Wood’s diving header - to give Newcastle a chance of getting back into the game but they were wasteful with the ball and even fluffed their lines when Leicester did their best to gift them opportunities.

“I thought we did enough to get back into it, we worked hard all over the pitch but the goal just wouldn't come,” Adam Armstrong said.

“I share the fans' frustrations definitely. It was great support, four and a half thousand to come for an FA Cup game was really good

“I want the fans to keep going and go into next week.”