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2023 was Trafalgar Square. 2025 is Covent Garden. This will be different. Hopefully.
24 hours on from those scenes in Trafalgar Square two years ago, Newcastle United fans left Wembley with that sinking feeling again. The Magpies had failed to turn up and lay a glove on Manchester United - a team they would comprehensively beat less than two months later at St James’ Park.
In the haze of that night, I wrote a piece very similar to this one with this following extract, disappointingly, a premonition of what was to come: ‘Although everyone was here for the game, ultimately Sunday’s result didn’t matter on Saturday night. People were simply there to acknowledge and celebrate what a crazy 16 months it has been since the takeover of the club, and what a crazy few years this club has in-store.’
Only that Sunday’s result did matter - and it hurt. It still stings now.
That should have been the time their long, long wait for a trophy ended. But it wasn’t.
Now though, the fates have given them a second opportunity to right that wrong - and this time there are no excuses. No room for sentimentality or to just enjoy a weekend’s trip to London. A new attitude is needed.
And at Covent Garden, a new attitude was present. Fans still sung their hearts out, they drank London dry and families and friends embraced as one. But there was a palpable belief that this was to be different.
Newcastle United fans were in London to see their side win. “We just have to stop Salah… get at them like we did at home… with Isak we always have a chance,” were conversations heard all across the weekend and all across the capital.
The lack of red shirts, as there were two years ago, was again noticeable. For Liverpool, this was just another weekend and a chance to start the Arne Slot-era with a trophy.
PSG in midweek was their main focus until 11pm on Tuesday night. Newcastle have been thinking about this weekend for over five weeks.
That difference in mentality may never be equaled. Trophies (and lots of them) will have to be won on a regular basis before finals and weekends like this are not at the forefront of everyone's minds for weeks and weeks.
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‘Remember when Kenny Wharton sat on the ball…what a player Sylvain Marveaux was on his day…’ were just parts of conversations overheard as fans looked, and prayed, for distractions on Saturday night. Those distractions, though, will last just a matter of hours before Eddie Howe’s side take to the hallowed turf to end their long trophy drought.
Visions of Bruno Guimaraes holding the trophy aloft on Sunday night will be the last thought of Newcastle United fans before they went asleep on Saturday and the first thing they thought about when they woke up this morning. In 12 hours time, we will know if life can go on as it has for the last seven decades or if it has changed forever. 11 men have that destiny in their own hands. Covent Garden was the scene setter - Wembley is where heroes will be made.
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