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We are well and truly in pinch yourself territory…

1 year ago
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I need to start here with a sort of confession that I hope a decent percentage of readers can identify with.

I have been a bit obsessed with this tie, and ultimately this game, for at least a month now. It has occupied a fair amount of my daily thoughts to the point that I sometimes struggle to concentrate on other things, and has been something that has excited and terrified me in equal measure.

This has escalated intermittently since before Christmas, when a home quarter final with Leicester suggested progress to this stage was a real possibility. When Leicester were beaten on a magnificent night under the lights, the anticipation increased tenfold, with a further crank up the following night when Southampton removed the main threat of Man City before coming out of the hat as the final blocker between ourselves and Wembley.

It took an age for the first leg to roll around and after an uplifting but far from conclusive result it has been an unacceptably long week to wait for the decisive match.

I’m going to say this now, but anyone who has used the internet (or real life, but let’s be honest here, mainly the internet) to jump down people’s throats whenever there has been talk of the final, is a trumped up clumpy slipper. We went into this tie in solid form, unbeaten since August in the league, we sit third in while Southampton prop the table up.

The defensive capability we have built our success on is made for a two-legged tie, we had the edge of home advantage in the decisive second match and Saints had to cram an FA Cup tie in between legs that we took strategic and well-planned steps to avoid. As heavy favourites we were within our rights to look into the logistics of planning the big weekend at Wembley. Now that we’ve confirmed our place there (spoiler alert) there will be considerable tw.t tax applied to those who refused to plan properly and rightly so.

You can also plan ahead without totally dismissing Southampton (only buy with things with cancellation potential) and I’d be lying if I pretended I wasn’t alive to the threat of crushing disappointment as I bounced round the bars in search of a long afternoon of nerve settlers.

The sight of an entrepreneurial individual selling scarves with “Newcastle United – Carabao Cup final 2023” on them in the middle of the Bigg Market was enough to rattle the confidence of even optimistic me. I wondered if he knew he was in the most likely spot in the town for getting his stall smashed up if things went awry.

Finally, the game came around. Beered up me took the hasty decision to wave round one of the big flags, which is hard work by the way, but I helped make the place look nice for the introduction of new signings Harrison Ashby and Anthony Gordon, with the latter looking particularly bemused at the sight of a ground buzzing with hope and excitement, instead of raining boos and building roadblocks.

The atmosphere has been up and down for these ties, but it was never going to be anything other than electric for this, the only instance where a home game can lead directly to a Wembley final and an occurrence that most of us have never known in our lives. I think a few people had been on a similar experience as me in terms of refreshments and everything just felt right as we got underway.

We’d been saying in the pub that an early goal would be magnificent tonight to settle the nerves and the stars aligned to deliver the quickest goal seen at St James this season. There weren’t even five minutes on the clock when Sean Longstaff released Trippier, who advanced into the box and turned Walker-Peters inside out before squaring back to Longstaff who had found outrageous space to steer the ball past the despairing lunge of Bazunu into the corner.

The place went ballistic, one of those moments where the replays are infinitely rewatchable as the noise erupts, 2-0 up now, the early goal we craved and surely now everyone was having thoughts of Wembley. Saints would have to come at us with abandon now and the open game would surely give opportunities to put this to bed.

On 20 minutes, the opportunity arrived and the tie was out to bed. Joe Willock danced down the left side and played in Almiron, who centred for the onrushing Longstaff who calmly finished in his stride, taking his tally of goals at SJP to three, some four years after his first against Burnley. This goal, and the celebrations that followed, will live long in the memory for me, 3-0 up with our defensive capabilities was surely insurmountable. I’m not ashamed to admit I had a little tear in my eye as me and my mates jumped around celebrating a crucial goal from a local boy. This was more than just this game, for me it was emblematic of everything that has happened here in the past 15 months. The rebirth of pride, hope and dreams, of smiling faces, wet eyes and unbridled joy where the bitterness and apathy of the Ashley regime once sat and quietly twitched. All forgotten in a moment of disbelief-tinged euphoria. Sean Longstaff had scored and we were going to Wembley.

There was a rude reality check only minutes later, as Willock’s wayward pass went directly to Che Adams, who turned and fired in a snapshot that arrowed inside Pope’s far post. A bit of a shock to see our mighty keeper finally beaten after almost 1,000 minutes, but like the previous strike he conceded, this was once again a Southampton consolation strike in an obvious losing effort.

Things might have gotten twitchy had Southampton found another goal, and Adam Armstrong almost did just that as he continued in his baffling mission to get his Mam and Dad’s house graffitied. Sent through one-on-one with Pope, the Geordie striker tried to lift the ball over the keeper but Nick Pope was massive and has already started work on another 900 minutes+ unbeaten.

United had chances to restore the three goal cushion at the other end as Bruno flashed a thunderbolt off the outside of the post and Longstaff almost made it a memorable hat-trick latching onto a loose ball after heavy appeals for a handball from his team mates. The technique with which he struck a magnificent volley belied the standards of some recent efforts ballooned high into various stands, and hopefully suggest young Lobby might have got his eye in to weigh in with a few strikes for the vital months ahead.

There was to be a slightly sour tinge to proceedings unfortunately.

With less than ten minutes to go and the win all but assured, Bruno went into the book for what looked like a clumsy challenge. Things got alarming when the VAR called the ref over to the pitchside monitor, and replays looked awful as Bruno seemed to stretch over the ball and go in studs first on the outer ankle of Edozie. Panic here as we all instantly questioned the suspension criteria for this type of game. It’s not ideal, but Bruno will “only” miss the forthcoming run of three PL games, with his return from suspension coming at Wembley. Positives here are that he will have a chance to recover any residual niggles from that ankle thing he received (as opposed to caused) against Fulham and the enforced absence will give Howe an opportunity to integrate Gordon to the team, with options on starting him, Murphy or ASM against West Ham.

There was also the more immediate problem of James Ward-Prowse lining up the resultant free kick. If he did his thing the remaining few minutes could get ever so tense with ten men. The danger was averted, but again there was cost, as Isak absorbed the full power of the shot in his head, and is likely to also miss the weekend due to concussion protocols. An uncomfortably long injury time was navigated with the usual tricks, including Anderson coming on for the grinning Murphy, who himself had been a substitute half an hour earlier. But the whistle arrived to great joy and relief, as our place at Wembley was finally confirmed after a month of tension, with the DJ throwing in Que Sera, like the emotional crowd needed any further lifting.

What follows now is to be savoured surely. We have to maintain a strong league season with three games that have points for the taking, as Champions League qualification remains a very attainable goal. But after these matches comes one of the biggest days many of us will remember, as we head to Wembley with a real sense of hope. Surely, the opposition will once again be Man Utd, as it so often has in these showpiece games. But this time we go with belief, as opposed to the lambs to the slaughter feel of past visits. Man U face a double header against Leeds in the league and Barcelona in the Europa league before then, with the final leg of that tie coming less than three days before our match. With Eddie Howe I feel we have someone who will grab that advantage, and there’s every chance our old friends from Catalonia could provide a heavy assist in our quest to break the trophy hoodoo.

It’s absolutely foreign territory for me personally, and surely a lot of you, to have a strong league campaign co-existing alongside a realistic cup run. Previous finals and semi-finals have been set against a backdrop of Premier League indifference and underperformance that ultimately leads to poor form and weak confidence translating to the cup. Not this time, not Eddie’s mags.

It was almost symbolic to be saying goodbye at half time to a fine servant of the club as Jonjo Shelvey waved goodbye ahead of signing for Forest. Someone who helped us out at low ebbs of the Ashley era, and scored what was possibly one of the most important goals in the club’s history at Leeds to kick start all of this, was leaving.

The past, was leaving, the present is winning massive games, the future is pride, happiness and trophies. Hopefully this will all begin in 25 days time, but regardless this is brilliant and we are well and truly in pinch yourself territory.

This is mint, see you at Wembley. That’s right, Wembley.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 2 Southampton 1 (3-1 on aggregate) – Tuesday 31 January 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Longstaff 5, 21, Bruno Red Card 82

Southampton:

Adams 29

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Southampton 55% (39%) Newcastle 45% (61%)

Total shots were Southampton 8 (2) Newcastle 15 (9)

Shots on target were Southampton 3 (2) Newcastle 7 (4)

Corners were Southampton 1 (0) Newcastle 5 (4)

Referee: Paul Tierney

Newcastle United:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Longstaff, Willock (Saint-Maximin 61), Almiron (Murphy 61 (Anderson 90+7), Joelinton, Wilson (Isak 61 (Lascelles 90+5)

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Dummett, Ritchie, Lewis

(Eddie Howe on top form – At the moment this doesn’t mean anything to me – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 2 Southampton 1 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 2 Southampton 1 – The instant NUFC fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)

(Newcastle United have made it to Wembley! Read HERE)

(Newcastle 2 Southampton 1 – The three big points that I’m taking from the match – Read HERE)

You can follow the author on Twitter @Mr_Dolf

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