Last night it was confirmed (although we pretty much knew it anyway) that Manchester United will be our opponents on 26th February at Wembley Stadium in the Carabao Cup Final.
Those of us with greying hair will remember this fixture in the FA Cup final in 1999 when Manchester United emerged victorious at our expense with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Paul Scholes and Teddy Sheringham.
I remember where I was for the game – good old Castle pub in Blackpool – I don’t remember much after the game for obvious reasons (especially as I was 17 at the time and therefore a complete kid’s belly. Shhhh).
In 1999 Manchester United were at the peak of their powers, although Newcastle were challenging at the top end of the table and had obviously gone on a tremendous cup run to reach the final, there was still a gulf in class between the clubs. Winning cups for them was normal behaviour. Wembley was their second home. We never rose to the occasion in the Capital. We’d been defeated by Arsenal 2-0 in the FA Cup Final the year before. We got battered by Manchester United 4-0 in the Charity Shield in 1996. Wembley was not a happy place for us.
But that was almost 24 years ago. So much has changed. Manchester United are only just finding their feet again after years of turmoil. Eric Ten Hag has managed to turn them around at the right time and now they’re snapping at our heels in the Premier League, and they’ll eagerly be awaiting their date with destiny at the end of the month.
However, Newcastle are a completely different club. We’ve been through two different sets of ownership since then, we now have the best English manager in the game, a defence stronger than the Spartan Army and a belief and confidence we haven’t seen at our club for years. History means nothing, especially when it is now just a dot on the horizon. This is our time. WE are on the rise. A new dawn is coming and this cup final is our first big statement of intent.
We have the upper hand when it comes to the lead up too. Manchester United have European commitments to contend with, meaning they have seven games between now and the final whereas we have just three (just enough for Bruno Guimaraes to serve his suspension and come back raring to go for the final). Ten Hag’s men play Barcelona on the Thursday before the final too. Not a game they can afford to rest their big players for, so they should be coming into the game a bit more fatigued than we do. It’s all pointing our way.
New owners, new management, new players, new confidence, new Wembley. We’ve got this!