No one will be sleeping on Tyneside tonight as the Toon Army takes over the North-East of England to celebrate their beloved Magpies pinching silverware out of the Scouser’s laps this afternoon at Wembley!!!!
Newcastle United are League Cup Champions
The Toon Army has been starved of success for far too long, their last silverware of any type came in the same year Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man” and that was in the now defunct Inter Cities Fairs Cup.
Sure that was a European success that they had to beat Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon and Rangers to win, but they also faced a Real Zaragoza team that has spent the last dozen years in the 2nd tier of Spannish football and a Vitoria de Setubal team that was relegated down to the Portuguese 6th tier last summer.
Their final opponents aren’t much to write home about either, Ujpest of Hungary are currently 3rd from bottom in their top tier.
To find Newcastle’s last domestic success we have to go back to a month after Winston Churchill resigned at the end of his second term as Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II had been on the throne for just 3 years.
Welcome to 1955, the rationing of World War 2 had only been gone 12 months and Newcastle United step out onto the hallowed turf to face down Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.
That’s a final line-up that doesn’t sound too unusual 70 years later, the players back then were a different breed. Legends on both sides lined up to do battle, with Jackie Milburn lining up alongside Bob Stokoe, Ron Batty and Vic Keeble. The legends facing them were no shrinking violets, Don Revie would later gain notoriety as Leeds United Manager and the England Manager that resigned for more money in the UAE.
The biggest legend on the field that day though has to be Bert Trautmann who fought in the Luftwaffe during the war, but when offered repatriation after the allied victory chose instead to settle in England. He would end up on the losing side in 1955 but a year later his City side would defeat Birmingham City 3-1 despite Mr. Trautmann playing the final 17 minutes with a broken neck!!!
They don’t make players like that anymore.
What they finally make again on Tyneside is trophy winners, as witnessed by 88,513 at Wembley today.
The manager that has led this team to victory is Eddie Howe, who turned Bournemouth into a premier league team but wouldn’t have been many tynesider’s first choice when he was appointed but now he is destined to be remembered as one of the greatest managers in Newcastle’s storied history, maybe even on Bobby Robson levels….
His starting line-up for this historic victory was: Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Fabian Shar, Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Dan Burn and Alexander Isak. Heroes of the Toon Army one and all.
They will go down in Newcastle folklore as the men that bested the runaway League Champions and returned glory to the North East, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to secure the silverware.
From the first minute it was clear they wanted it way more than their exalted opposition, whose eyes are clearly trained on the league title, and whilst it took till the dying seconds of the first half for the deadlock to be broken the destination of the title never looked in doubt.
Weekends are the best part of life and this weekend will go down as the best ever for Dan Burn, who followed up his first England call up by thundering a header home to open the scoring and leave the Toon Army staggering towards their half-time pints drowning in extasy.
Newcastle showed no sign of letting that goal go to their heads as they burst out of the traps in the second half and doubled their lead within 7 minutes through talisman Alexander Isak.
Isak has been a nightmare for defenders all season and he proved to be again on this most historic of days, ghosting in unmarked at the near post to snaffle home from point blank range as Caoimhin Kelleher scooped a scuffed shot into his path. It was a scruffy goal, but they all count and not a single soul in the triumphant Toon Army cares how the goals went in, only that they did.
Sure Federico Chiesa scored a 94th minute consolation for Liverpool to ruin the Magpies’ clean sheet, but it couldn’t change the result and the richly deserved victory that reverberated across the country.
Newcastle have been on the up for a few seasons now and this victory is their crowning glory. Drawing momentum and belief from this victory is crucial for them, you’ve all seen what Manchester City have gone onto achieve since breaking their 36 year trophy drought with FA Cup success in 2011.
If 2 goals in 7 minutes ending 70 years of hurt can have a similar effect on the Magic Magpies then we are in for a decade of dominance from the sleeping giants of the North-East. No set of supporters deserves it more than the Toon Army, who are known nationwide for their raucous support that travels long distances in huge numbers to cheer on their team.
The Football tourist 