Welcome to the Newcastle v Brentford preview.
Wednesday 18th December 7.45pm
League Cup Quarter-Final
Newcastle host Brentford on Wednesday night, in what I believe to be the most important match of the season so far.
A win for either side sets up a two-legged semi-final competing for a place at Wembley and a result must be achieved on the night.
Toon will have the added incentive of gaining revenge for our recent 4-2 league defeat at Brentford, whilst the Bees will be hoping to make the semi-final of the League Cup for just the second time in their history.
Form
As form goes out the window on these occasions, let’s take a look at how the two sides have fared in the cup so far this season:
Newcastle have reached this stage by beating Nottingham forest away on penalties, followed by home wins over both AFC Wimbledon and Chelsea. We’ve scored four goals and conceded just one so far. We’ve also been offered a home match in the FA Cup and will face Bromley in the third round at the start of January.
Last season, the Toon made the quarter-final of both cups and will be hoping to go further in both this time around. League Cup matches go straight to penalties (until the semi-finals) if there is a draw after ninety minutes and this led to our 4-3 shoot out success away at Forest. We beat AFC Wimbledon 1-0 thanks to a Fabian Schar spot-kick and were slightly more impressive against Chelsea, fully deserving of our 2-0 victory.
Brentford have seen off Colchester, Leyton Orient and Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup so far this season. They’ve scored five goals and conceded two but did need penalties to beat Sheffield Wednesday. The last time they made the Semi-Final of this competition, they won a quarter final against… Newcastle United! In the FA Cup, Brentford will be playing Plymouth Argyle for a place in the fourth round.
Last time out
Newcastle were hugely impressive in their last cup match at home to Chelsea and were the better team throughout, as the Magpies gained revenge for a defeat by the same opposition in last season’s competition. Two goals in three first-half minutes from Isak and an own goal (forced by Willock) put the Toon firmly in control. If anything, we still looked the more likely scorers in the second period, especially when Longstaff had a header disallowed for offside. Osula came on as a late substitute and took a fine touch on the turn before smashing an effort against the post that would have brought the house down if it had found the bottom corner, on a night where everyone in black and white played their part in the victory.
Brentford hosted Sheffield Wednesday in their last cup match and were pegged back to 1-1 after taking an early lead. They scored all of their penalties in a 5-4 shootout success.
Stat attack!
Newcastle have kept eight clean sheets in their past nine League Cup home matches, the only blemish coming in a 2-1 success against Southampton in the 22/23 semi-final.
In eleven League Cup quarter finals, Newcastle have won just twice: these came in 1976 and 2023.
NUFC and Brentford have only previously met twice in the competition, a 4-1 win for the Toon in 2001 was avenged by Brentford with a 1-0 success in 2020.
Newcastle will be playing their third consecutive League Cup quarter-final for the first time in their history.
Memorable match
Newcastle hosted Leicester in the 22/23 League Cup quarter-final and booked their place in a first semi-final since 1976.
The Toon were by far the better team throughout and could (perhaps should) have been ahead after just forty seconds when Longstaff missed a glorious chance. This set the tone for a dominant display from the black and whites but the score remained deadlocked until the second half. A few seconds after the restart, Joelinton hit the post, but NUFC fans needn’t have worried that it wasn’t going to be their night. Cometh the hour, cometh the man as big Dan Burn strode into the area on the sixtieth minute and swept home a glorious effort past the ‘keeper at the Gallowgate End. This was Burn’s first goal for his hometown club and the ecstasy in the scorer’s face was reflected all over the stadium as St James’ Park erupted!
Dan Burn
This was one of the highlights of an incredible season but the scoring wasn’t done there. Twelve minutes later, Almiron played in Joelinton to confirm the win with an unstoppable strike. There was still time for Leicester’s Jamie Vardy to miss two golden chances to make a game of it but the night belonged to NUFC and a semi-final draw against Southampton had fans dreaming of Wembley glory. Final score Newcastle 2-0 Leicester.
Played for both
Sir Les Ferdinand – a little known fact is that Toon royalty Sir Les played three times for Brentford on loan from Queens Park Rangers back in 1988. The legendary striker failed to find the net and returned to QPR before signing for NUFC in 1995. The rest, as they say, is history. Two years, fifty goals, two second place Premier League finishes and many happy memories at the Toon. His sale to Tottenham in 1997 remains one of the worst footballing decisions of NUFC in living memory.
Carl Cort showed early promise when signed by Sir Bobby in 2000. The England under-21 striker took just four minutes of his home debut to find the net with a powerful header against Derby County. Unfortunately, his time at the Toon was plagued with injuries and we never really saw the best of him. He played thirty one matches for Brentford between 2009-2011, scoring six goals.
Ivan Toney signed for Newcastle from Northampton early in his career but struggled to break into the first team. After a number of loan moves, he signed for Peterborough and then Brentford, scoring sixty seven league goals for the Bees, before moving to the Saudi Pro League in the summer.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a fine 4-0 success over Leicester City –
“Yes, it’s a big win. It’s a big win for a lot of reasons, but I think this week with two home games and the importance of both games, to start well gives us a massive lift. It was important we responded to the Brentford performance in the right way – I thought we did. Right from the start of the game, I thought we looked engaged, mentally switched-on, able to give a really good athletic performance and technical performance. I thought we had a bit of everything today, good attacking, good defending. I think there were a lot of positive responses to the disappointment of last week. I thought there was a lot of pressure on the players today, that wasn’t lost on me.”
Alexander Isak Goal Celebration Newcastle
Thomas Frank after a 2-1 defeat away to Chelsea –
“I’m very pleased with the performance. The players gave everything. This is a very good Chelsea team with very good players and they’ve spent a few quid. Well coached. Second half we were better. A draw would have been well deserved in my opinion. We hit the crossbar and had other big chances. We created quite a bit of trouble for Chelsea which you could see how much it meant to them. They are right up there as favourites for the title and well deserved.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.
Prediction
This is a tough one to call and I fancy it to go right to the wire. If the scores are deadlocked after ninety minutes, we go straight to a penalty shootout and I think this is what will happen.
Thankfully we’ve improved our shootout record in recent years and I fancy us to sneak through to only the third League Cup semi-final in our history. Newcastle 1-1 Brentford (Toon win 4-2 on penalties).