When Newcastle United last stood below the Wembley arch, tears ran down forlorn faces. Defeat to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final two years ago spoke volumes. On a day that showcased their inexperience and naivity, the 2023 final proved just how far Newcastle had to go to call themselves a top club.
In 2025, with a much harder job on paper of beating Premier League champions-elect Liverpool, Newcastle came of age to lift the gloom and end the wait for a major trophy which had clouded every corner of their existence for far too long.
Newcastle had learnt the lessons from past failures and the controlled performance they put in showed their growth as a team and a club. Eddie Howe, the manager, will forever be revered on Tyneside as the man changed their history and future.
Newcastle dispel Wembley ghost with League Cup win
Few clubs have been victims of their own failures like Newcastle. The longing for success can and has created extreme pressure and that was clear the last time they found themselves one step from glory.
But this win and the manner of it felt like a line in the sand. The next one doesn't seem so scary; the aim is for this feeling to become as regular as it has over the years for Liverpool.
"We proved we can mix our game against the very best," a champagne-drenched Howe said afterwards. "It was really important; there is no guarantee but hopefully one can become more. It proves we can do it; you don't get many shots, today the players delivered so impressively under pressure.
"We didn't do anything drastically different, we just tried to take the distractions away. The first time we got to Wembley was very emotional, and that didn't help our cause. But it didn't decide the game, the players did that on the pitch."
Though it could not be stated outright by Arne Slot, Liverpool's eyes were elsewhere and they played like it. Within a matter of weeks, a 20th league title will surely be confirmed, and they were still licking their wounds from a galling Champions League exit on penalties to PSG.
Newcastle were first to every ball, fighting, harrying and bullying from midfield, even without creating too much of note in the early stages. When Dan Burn headed home, right before half-time, the noise at the far end of Wembley was thunderous and prolonged to reflect not only joy but relief. There had been no goal on that ground since 2000 and none in a final since 1976.
For all the nervous energy and desperation packed in the black and white half of the national stadium, there was also a need to see the best Newcastle to show up. Most had seen nothing but meak, insipid performances on their fleeting visits to these showpiece occassions, particularly in their most recent one, but this final acted as vindication.
For all Alexander Isak and Sandro Tonali's obvious and deserved appraisals this season, it was hard to find a more befitting goalscorer than Burn. He is the 32-year-old from Blyth who worked at Asda and drove a blue Peugeot, who had done the hard yards at Darlington, Wigan and Yeovil.
When the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of the club was confirmed, he let go of his boyhood dream of playing for Newcastle but came back from Brighton to graft harder than anyone without a moment's thought of the adulation he deserved. He is the people's representative; humble, unassuming, often dismissed, but colossal. He'll be back at Wembley next Friday, potentially making his England debut after a first call up last week.
Liverpool have shown a tendancy to come back stronger in the second half of games this season. The call in the dressing room was for calm, but in the stands it was bedlam. But after the break, Newcastle found their next gear. Isak tapped home from close range after a corner minutes after the restart, but the offside flag cut his joy short for about a minute. Then came the trademark finish and it was bedlam again. Bedlam for the foreseeable future.
Isak has now scored a decisive goal in a cup final, something nobody has done in over five decades. Quite where he fits on the pantheon of Newcastle's great strikers has been up for debate, but the records he's broken and the moments he has conjured since signing for the club in 2022 keep pushing him higher. He'll need to stay longer than three years to offer serious competition to the great man, but what he did on Sunday will forever remain out of Alan Shearer's reach.
Two years on, tears flowed again, but this time of joy. Seventy years of hurt put to bed on one glorious, dominant, deserving afternoon. Winning a trophy had become such a weight, but Newcastle played with a freedom which suggests more silverware may not be far behind.
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