The Magpies lost a remarkable penalty shootout – in which all 22 players were forced to take at least one spot-kick – after 120 minutes of action failed to separate the sides.

Much earlier on, they got off to the worst possible start at the Daren Persson Stadium, as the Robins’ Ryan Carr prodded home after Nathan Harker dropped a corner from the right.

Haris Vuckic restored parity five minutes into the second half, before United enjoyed their brightest spell of the evening.

Beardsley, however, felt his side never really got going against the competition’s current holders, and was honest in his assessment after the game.

“We shouldn’t – with all due respect to them – lose to North Shields,” he told nufc.co.uk. “When you look at what they produced on Monday (against West Bromwich Albion), they were brilliant, but the standard tonight was totally different.

“Obviously, the pitch wasn’t as good, but it’s just frustrating. Three or four of them have been in the first team over the last month, so they know what the manager expects, and for me, they didn’t give that tonight.

“When you come in at half time having not played very well, there is always a response. We scored early into the second half, and then we shouldn’t even get to extra time, but we never really looked like scoring again. Stu (Findlay) had a header, but other than that we didn’t really have a clear-cut chance.

“When you get to extra time, it’s a lottery – (North Shields) are tired, and they’re playing for time. It’s frustrating – it’s really frustrating. We have another game on Monday, and we need to get this out of our system as quick as we can.”