English League Cup upset another dose of fleeting joy for Newcastle fans

Magpies supporters persist with their club despite consistent failures and disappointing leadership, writes Andy Mitten

A young Newcastle United fan celebrates after victory in the English League Cup fourth round match against Manchester City at Etihad Stadium on October 29, 2014, in Manchester, England. Michael Regan / Getty ImagesShow less

Newcastle United came close to wining a trophy in 1976, but an overhead kick by Dennis Tueart, a Newcastle-born footballer playing for Manchester City, saw the League Cup go to Manchester.

Newcastle had reached the FA Cup final three years earlier, where future club hero Kevin Keegan scored twice for Liverpool in a 3-0 win.

Keegan was in charge when Newcastle were 12 points clear in the 1996 Premier League run-in, but they were beaten to the title by Manchester United, the team who also beat them in the 1999 FA Cup final.

Newcastle, with average home attendances of 50,000 during the past decade, the third highest in England and 12th highest in world football, have not won a major honour since the Inter Cities Fairs Cup triumph in 1969.

Even so, young fans wearing black-and-white shirts outside the away turnstiles before Wednesday’s League Cup last-16 tie at holders and Premier League champions Manchester City seemed anything but downbeat.

“We’ll beat City!” shouted one of three 11-year-olds, from Spennymoor, County Durham. The trio are season-ticket holders at St James’ Park but had been allowed to attend an away game as a treat during the school holidays.

Tickets cost just £1 (Dh5.87), and £15 for the adults in the group.

Their optimism seemed misplaced. Newcastle had not won a game at City since 2000, when the Blues were far weaker than they are now.

When the team sheet was announced, victory seemed improbable. City played a near full-strength side including Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Martin Demichelis, David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Fernandinho, James Milner and Stevan Jovetic.

Newcastle did not and played a local boy, Adam Armstrong, 17, with another teenager in Rolando Aarons, 18.

That they did not seem serious about winning a trophy was no surprise to some of their fans who have protested against the manager Alan Pardew this season and the owner, Mike Ashley, who heads the successful Sports Direct leisure chain.

Michael Martin, editor of Newcastle fan magazine True Faith, said: "Mike Ashley has turned Newcastle United into a zombie club. It exists to exist, part of the fodder of the Premier League, with minimal outlay on players just to survive and not much more.

“There’s no ambition to challenge the established order, to build the commercial infrastructure and provide additional revenue. There’s no interest in the cups as they don’t generate much money and glory doesn’t exist on the balance sheet.

“Under this Grinch of an owner there is no way United will add to its four championships, six FA Cups and one Uefa Inter Cities Fairs Cup. We’ll never play in the Champions League again because Ashley’s not interested in making that challenge or being bold. It’s just dead-eyed, corporate defeatism.”

So how do fans like Martin, who paid money to travel three hours each way to Manchester on a Wednesday night, feel about not winning anything?

“I think we’re just numb. The club is barely alive and it’s simply an advertising hoarding for the owner’s slum leisure wear,” he said. “We are about as much a football club as Sports Direct’s 56-inch-waist trackie bottoms are part of the Olympic legacy.”

Newcastle are 14th in the Premier League with only two wins from nine games.

Yet those two victories came in their past two matches, and spirits were especially lifted by Sunday's 2-1 triumph against Tottenham.

“We don’t know what the plans are for in the cups,” said Gary Atkinson, one of the 3,000 travelling fans. “We’ve concentrated on staying in the league, but we’d love a cup win because we’re not going to get into Europe this season.

“We bought too many players in the close season and we started poorly because we’re taking time to bed them in, but you never know which way Newcastle is going to turn out. We played really well against Man City on the opening day of the season but looked like a relegation team until last week.”

Atkinson’s glint of optimism was to prove well-founded; his team were excellent against City in a 2-0 victory.

Newcastle had four local players in the squad, three of whom started and one who came on after half time.

Defender Ryan Taylor, who had missed the past two seasons due to a knee injury and subsequent complications, was playing his first game in 26 months. He was close to tears as he passed his shirt to a young fan at the end of the game and received a deserved standing ovation from teammates.

“It’s a dream come true. Two years of hard graft has paid off,” he said. “What a performance that was. All that time in the gym on my own, there until 4pm from 7am, it’s all worth it. To get my pads and boots back on has been a dream come true.”

For Newcastle, victory ensures a first quarter-final in the competition since a 2006 clash against Chelsea.

Pardew’s team will play at Tottenham, but their fans, who sang about going to Wembley, where the final will be played, know not to get carried away.

Life as a Newcastle United fan is series of setbacks, punctuated by surprises like they enjoyed on Wednesday in Manchester.

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