When Newcastle lost away at Leicester in the 2015 FA Cup, it confirmed that they would be going 60 years without a domestic trophy. This article was originally published in the (now defunct) 'Popular Side' fanzine:
There’s the full-time whistle at the King Power stadium. Leicester have beaten Newcastle United 1-0 to progress to the 4th round of the FA cup. There’ll be no open top bus for the Toon Army to enjoy in 2015 as they now come to terms with the fact that they are guaranteed to go sixty years without a domestic trophy.
Well that was short and not so sweet wasn’t it? A non performance away at an eminently beatable Leicester City ensures our FA cup dreams are consigned to the realms of fantasy and fiction for at least another year. coupled with a 4-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane (a ground we’d already won at in the premiership) in the league cup and it’s no trophies for wor lads again this season.
Being born in 1986, I’ve supported the lads my entire life. My love, passion and obsession with all things black and white really came into play during my first year at Hexham Middle School. That season I listened to every game on local radio and covered every school book in pictures and slogans relating to the Toon. I even visited the training ground and met Les Ferdinand, Lee Clark and Peter Beardsley among others. Little did I know that the season unfolding before me would become one of the most rued and gut wrenching in living memory. By sheer bad luck and coincidence my first season as a fully fledged member of the Toon Army was the ‘so close’ 95/96, a year we managed to blow a twelve point lead at the the top of the table to finish second by four points.
Back then it seemed only a matter of time before we’d all witness the glorious sight of a big shiny trophy with black and white ribbons and the Toon reinforced this belief with a continuation of this challenge to the elite of English football. We’d again finish second the season after and make it to the next two FA cup finals after that.
It was perhaps my first away game that that made me initially question whether I’d ever see my dreams come true. The April sun was shining, 40,000 Geordies were roaring on the lads and Robert Lee blasted a header into the Wembley net. At 1-1 we were battering Chelsea in the 2000 FA cup semi final and sure to book our place in next months final against a poor Aston Villa side, five minutes later and we were 2-1 down and sadly slipped out of the cup.
At the risk of being banished from SJP for life, I seem to carry around a personal curse against any team I want to win. This roll of shame includes attending three semi finals and seeing not one victory (Chelsea 2000, Marseille 2004 and Man United 2005), never seeing united win an FA cup away tie, attending a 6-0 defeat on two separate occasions, losing my first ever derby due to a late penalty miss and being at Villa Park for Robson’s last ever game, a watershed moment from which we have never recovered. The curse doesn’t stop at Newcastle United either, last season alone I was able to spread my misery to two more clubs - watching Darren Peacock’s Lancaster City miss out on the playoffs on goal difference and going to Wembley to see Gateshead lose the playoff final. My best mate’s Bradford City were off to a splendid start to this season too til I chose to take the curse to Valley Parade for a 3-1 defeat that led to a bad run of form. I also scuppered Morecambe’s play off push last season by attending three important games without a win and oversaw Carlisle United’s relegation, a few years back I saw Lancaster City lose a play off final thanks to last minute penalty on a waterlogged pitch, need I go on?
It does often feel that we’ll never be granted the luxury of winning anything...ever. To be honest though can it ever really be as good as we’ve all imagined it to be? My gut feeling is that it would be entirely anticlimactic after such a long wait.
I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ll never see the Toon win a cup, as long as the Travelling Toon Army remain vibrant, humorous, friendly and up for the craic though, I’ll always be be back for more. Who needs trophies?...the queues at the bar are long enough already!
Newcastle United, here’s to another sixty years!