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NEWCASTLE ENDED THEIR 56-year trophy drought in stunning style as Dan Burn and Alexander Isak sealed a 2-1 win against Liverpool in the League Cup final on Sunday.
Eddie Howe’s side made history at Wembley with a superb display that left the runaway Premier League leaders shell-shocked.
Burn put Newcastle ahead late in the first half and Isak’s 27th goal in all competitions doubled their lead after the interval.
Federico Chiesa got one back in the closing seconds, but Newcastle held on for their first major silverware since the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
That success in the predecessor to the Europa League is a relic of a bygone era, but this long-awaited triumph will be forever etched in the memories of the Newcastle fans who turned one half of Wembley into a roiling sea of black and white with their ecstatic celebrations.
It was also Newcastle’s first major domestic prize dating back 70 years to the 1955 FA Cup.
Since the Magpies lifted the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 30 different English teams had won silverware, while Liverpool had clinched 38 major trophies in that time.
But after losing the 2023 League Cup final against Manchester United, Howe’s team returned to Wembley and set the record straight at last.
Newcastle had endured five relegations to the second tier since their last trophy, with club legends like Alan Shearer, Paul Gascoigne and Malcolm MacDonald failing to win silverware in their time on Tyneside.
Aside from a brief period when Kevin Keegan’s self-styled “entertainers” challenged for the title in the 1990s, Newcastle have endured decades of underachievement and self-inflicted wounds that rendered them a laughing stock for long periods.
All that changed in 2021 when a Saudi-backed consortium completed a takeover from unpopular owner Mike Ashley and quickly hired Howe as their manager.
Thanks to Howe’s astute leadership and the Saudi financial backing, Newcastle have been transformed from relegation candidates to silverware winners.
The defeat was another painful blow for Liverpool just days after their Champions League last 16 exit on penalties against Paris Saint-Germain.
But despite failing to win their first trophy under boss Arne Slot, Liverpool still sit 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League, within touching distance of a record-equalling 20th English title.
- History for Newcastle -
Liverpool are 23 points ahead of sixth-placed Newcastle in the league and hadn’t lost to them for 17 games dating back to 2015.
But Howe’s men were in no mood to be cowed by past failures
Newcastle fans unveiled a banner before kick-off urging their team to “write your name in the history books”.
They rose to the challenge in spectacular fashion, snapping into tackles and counter-attacking with purpose, while Liverpool were sluggish and sloppy in possession.
Bruno Guimaraes had a golden opportunity to reward Newcastle’s enterprising start when Burn headed Kieran Trippier’s corner towards the Brazil midfielder, but he nodded at Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher from close-range.
Newcastle’s desire and drive was clear to see when Joelinton tracked back from midfield to stop Jarell Quansah in his tracks and celebrated with a fist-pumping roar.
Despite nearly being caught out by Burn’s aerial prowess once before, Liverpool failed to heed the warning as the towering centre-back put Newcastle ahead in the 45th minute.
Bizarrely left unmarked, with only the diminutive Alex Mac Allister anywhere near him, Burn was allowed to rise unchallenged to meet Tripper’s corner as he thumped a powerful header into far corner from 12 yards.
Burn’s goal — Newcastle’s first in a cup final since 1976 — capped an incredible week for the journeyman centre-back, who received his first England call-up on Friday.
With Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah completely anonymous, the lethargic Reds had no answer as Isak put Newcastle into dreamland after 52 minutes.
Jacob Murphy met Tino Livramento’s cross with a header that found Isak, who drilled a superb first-time finish past Kelleher from 10 yards.
Chiesa’s stoppage-time strike set up an anxious finale, but good things comes to those who wait.
And all across Wembley, Newcastle players and fans celebrated with abandon as a party over half a century in the making got into full swing.
Written by AFP and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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“the terms and conditions of that agreement are not under my control” really minister are you not part of a government which agreed the Haddington road programme?
Precisely, the terms of the HRA cannot be up for grabs as any concession to ASTI would annoy the rest of the unions as well as DPER. A face saving mechanism for ASTI is needed so they can go back to the minority of their members who have been sufficiently unhappy to vote for action.
Ciaran, Kerry is not referring to the HRA.
The HRA was rejected by the ASTI – while the gov doesn’t want to give concessions to the ASTI, the ASTI are not responsible for the fact that the gov have failed to deliver an agreement that doesn’t bully.
The agreement referred to in the story is the agreement discussed to solve the current impasse. Quinn cannot expect an agreement from the ASTI without assurances – would you?
I must be stupid Tony, “that agreement” seems to refer to the HRA from my reading of the article.
I will bow to you..
what kind of “assurances” would Quinn be getting from the ASTI?
Apologies Ciaran, I’m mixing up my reading of this with my reading of another news source of the same story where there was mention of coming to an agreement in these recent talks.
I don’t think it’s very fair to say that the terms are what workers in the private sector would particularly want for themselves. There’s only on term about teaching that attracts me, the holidays. Other than that, the prospect of working in a difficult environment with a lower, non negotiable salary and with zero review of myself and my colleagues’ output where the lazy are treated as badly or as well as the motivated, is absolutely repulsive.
There are plenty of front line jobs in the public sector I’d love to do, but these days there just isn’t enough incentive.
The only of the front line services in the public sector that I would consider is as a teacher. Gardai, Firemen and possibly Nurses (I don’t know for certain but I assume it’s not an easy post) have an awful time and although they enjoy certain perks associated with being a public sector employee it seems fair enough because they’re jobs that are not very appealing to a lot of people.
Teaching on the other hand would seem like an ideal lifestyle choice for me. Only a very small amount of class time a week during school terms with the rest completed at my own discretion (still less than my typical 45-50 hour week I’m sure). Incredible holidays during the summer with nice breaks throughout the year in October, December, February and at Easter. The wages aren’t amazing (unless you think about it logically that you’re paid for about an 8 month job) but with exam marking and of course some cash in hand private tuition you can earn some extra.
It’s a good profession with a great work life balance, a guaranteed pension at the end of it for and if you’re a good teacher I’m sure you get great satisfaction out of the positive impact that you have on the formative years of a childs life.
Shows what you know about teaching. Nothing.
Why are you not a teacher so ????
Sorry Alan I haven’t mentioned anything that isn’t true. You may have some other ideas on it but I haven’t said anything that is factually incorrect.
Pete if I could go back now and do it all again I would certainly have went down this route but at 29 I believe I’ve come to far on my accountancy career to turn back. Also the popularity of teaching has meant that it’s very difficult to nail down a full time position due to the masses of people flocking to this career.
Ah Ted come on sure there is a shortage of maths teachers then you could have all those holidays and the abuse you get from teenagers all day and all those hours of fun meeting parents till ten at night. Oh and all your student coming to you with there problems which are a lot. Drugs pregnant being gay. Then u can bring them home to try help them tell there parents.
I hope you’re not an English teacher Pete.
Ps I am a caretaker in a school trust me ted teachers do a lot more than u think. No way on this earth would I do it. I will say there is bad teachers but the most are great to the kids
Teaching is a nice little woman’s job. They probably get sick of all the attention from the local farmers though
Each day that goes by, this country becomes more and more of a mess.
Worst noting that the current situation actually saves the state money so that should please the bottom line brigade of morons on here. Most teachers perfectly happy to be finished with pointless Croke Park hours. New Junior is a joke and is deservedly being resisted. But the same fools who objected (rightly) to us being forced to vote again and again on European treaties will happily put the same bullschite agreement in front of teachers until they give the right response. Not going to happen.
Did anybody notice the sly way that he pitted the public vs private sector in the article. Government playing the media to its advantage yet again
Those labour party are like lambs to the slaughter they keep putting their sell out ministers in front of the camera.They should be hiding like their friends in fianna GAEL.
Just fire them 10 at a time until they mend their attitude- perfect solution
Thankfully we live in a country with laws rather than a facist dictatorship.
If things are getting this bad it seems inevitable that a lot of teachers will leave the profession due to such high levels of dissatisfaction. What will we do then? To survive such an eventuality we would need thousands of young, motivated graduates just itching to get themselves into teaching positions, but alas…. (Somehow doubt a single teacher would leave the profession over this, deep down they know how sweet they have it even if they won’t admit it.)
My brother is a permanent teacher working in Dublin and is leaving for oz next August.
Not trying to wind u up silent majority it is just a fact…
Fair enough, but there aren’t exactly huge numbers leaving the profession which is always the best indicator of conditions. Look at banking for example, conditions worsened for employees after 07/08 and huge numbers have changed career paths. IT on the other hand is offering very good remuneration & conditions relative to other industries and there is a rush to get into that industry (not necessarily in Ireland but that is more due to skills shortages than desire). There are not very many teachers changing career paths, and in fact we have an oversupply as evidenced by the number of NQTs trying to enter the profession – this is indicative of teaching enjoying superior pay & conditions relative to other professions which require similar standard of qualifications. (I assume this will just red thumbed by teachers with none even attempting to counter the arguments, but red thumbs do not change facts.)
I agree with you to a certain extent. I just think with the IT skills you’d have working in a bank it would be easier to change jobs compared to a teacher (just my opinion, completely open to correction there)
One question for you before I finish: in a civilised society do you think that groups of people should have to leave their jobs before something is done about the problem in that job?
Oh, and yr way off when you mentioned our superior pay by the way, that just ain’t true
I said superior pay & conditions, the two have to be taken as a unit effectively. So while your job security, long holidays, and early finishing times may not have an easily quantifiable monetary value, they do have a value to teachers themselves. Conditions like these are always taken into account by prospective applicants, whether consciously or otherwise.
To answer your first question, sometimes but not necessarily. Generally, if pay and conditions got so bad in a sector people would leave, and more importantly, no new entrants would be attracted. This will force the the pay and conditions up as the roles still require human input. All industries are competitive, in that they are all competing for human resources. The opposite of this is the case in teaching however, with an oversupply of human resources in spite of what incumbents decry as poor pay and conditions. This contradiction would appear to indicate that the pay and conditions of teachers remain superior to other roles that require a similar level of qualification.
Also, having non-transferable skills is not a reason to demand better remuneration, quite the opposite in fact. And teachers all have primary qualifications, so a one year conversion course and they can do most things. This is the option most bankers pursued, not just transferring existing skill sets to new roles. Those in the building industry did not have this luxury, so your skill set isn’t as non-transferable as you might think.
Meh
Dah!!! Career change to what exactely? If there were options there would be mass exodus. Noone can just change career in Ireland now. Remember the celtic tiger!!! Teaching jobs and substitution staff couldnt be found for love nor money esp in maths and science! Teaching careers were not so attractive then…
For a crap job..theres a lot staying in at it..i think they should spend a month doing a job swap with a private sector worker to get some perspective
Anthony I’ll do a job swap with you then you can see how ‘easy’ teaching is!
Unlikely he’d last longer than ten minutes before running out screaming.
A real live-wire today, aren’t we, Matthew F!
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