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Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer doesn’t have great memories of cup finals with the club.
Shearer played in two FA Cup finals for Newcastle in 1998 and 1999, losing 2-0 on each occasion at Wembley Stadium to Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. The Carabao Cup final in 2023 was Newcastle’s first major final since 1999 as they came up against Manchester United.
But the end result was the same as The Magpies lost 2-0 once again. On Sunday they come up against Premier League leaders and Carabao Cup holders Liverpool at Wembley Stadium (4:30pm kick-off) looking to end a 70-year domestic trophy drought since the 1955 FA Cup.
The club’s last cup final goal came in the 1976 League Cup final against Manchester City with Alan Gowling finding the net in a 2-1 defeat. Rob Lee scored Newcastle’s last Wembley goal against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final defeat in 2000.
Reflecting on past cup final defeats, Newcastle legend Alan Shearer told Sky Sports: “We didn't put up much of a fight against Manchester United. When you get to Wembley and you go that far, ultimately you're going to play a very good team.
“We played two incredible teams, one that was going for a treble, one was going for a double in Arsenal and Man United, but, yeah, not great memories.”
Liverpool will be going for a domestic double this season and look set to win a second Premier League title and eye a record-extending 11th league cup. Newcastle will be looking to win the competition for the first time.
‘Embarrassing’ Newcastle United parade
Newcastle’s trophy drought is such that the club organised a runners-up parade following the FA Cup defeat to Liverpool in 1974, League Cup defeat to Manchester City in 1976 and the FA Cup in 1998.
Shearer recalled: “I also remember, particularly the first one, coming home and having the parade down Gosforth High Street, from the Gosforth Park Hotel up to the Civic Centre.
“Hundreds of thousands of people there, it's pretty embarrassing, but it just shows you how desperate this place is to win a trophy.”
Eddie Howe looks ahead to Carabao Cup final
When asked how he’s feeling ahead of the final, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “It's a difficult one because I think a lot's made of that and of course I understand why, but I think it's a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone's feeling here.
“It should be inspiring for us, not a negative and I know I understand it will be a negative or perceived negative for a lot of people but we're trying to look at it the other way round.
“A chance to make history for us as a team, that's very rare in football, you get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively, which again not very many times in your career you get a chance to do that, so I think they're all positive outcomes and I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to give a good representation of us.”
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