Newcastle United legend Bob Moncur poses with Dan Burn after the Carabao Cup win at Wembley
Dan Burn and Bob Moncur at Boxpark after Newcastle won the Carabao Cup
Bob Moncur's stint as the last captain to lift a trophy for Newcastle United arduous one that stretched across six decades and lasted a total of 55 years, nine months and five days.
Not a season would go by when the legendary defender or his wife Camille would pick up the phone with a journalist of broadcast reporter wanting to do a piece on the former Scotland star having the honour of lifting what until Sunday night was the last major trophy at St James' Park! As Moncur and Wembley goalscorer Dan Burn embraced in the Boxpark after the Blyth lad's vital goal, the club's first at the revamped venue of legends, the run was finally at an end!
It's a sequence you could write a book about with Moncur not only telling his tales of Budapest, where Newcastle beat Újpesti Dózsa on the banks of the The Danube to lift the Fairs Cup, to journalists time and time again, but also travelling the world to meet with fans in far flung destinations like China, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States and regale them in Joe Harvey's team talks and his three goals over two legs to beat the Hungarian outfit 6-2 on aggregate.
On Sunday, Moncur will effectively take part in a changing of the guard ceremony on the hallowed turf of St James' Park. Just after lunchtime, Moncur will parade the Carabao Cup to a packed house in the Newcastle United Women's team clash against Sunderland.
It's a gesture that the club have insisted on with the 80-year-old invited by Toon chiefs to give the trophy its first airing on Tyneside since Sunday's final win over Liverpool. Moncur told Chronicle Live: "It'll be an honour. Myself and Darren Eales will hold it on the pitch and show the crowd before the derby.
"It should be a great day and if it is a full house all the better."
Moncur was with the Newcastle dignitries across the Magpies' Wembley weekend as a guest of honour. Through it all he was simply thinking about a win for the black and whites against Arne Slot's side.
Moncur said: "To be honest before the game I thought we'd struggle against Liverpool. They're a great side and we weren't at full strength. But I could see pretty much straight away that Newcastle United were the team on the front foot.
"I wondered if Liverpool were going to get back into it, but Newcastle were so dominant early, we were the better side on the day. I think that was down to Newcastle's tactics and you could see a lot of hard work had been put in by the management team. Whether it was down to Liverpool being up for it on the day or not, I don't actually care, and I never care about circumstances when you win big games.
"Some people will question Liverpool's attitude on the day but that's not our problem, Newcastle did what they did 10/10. There was just one team in it in my mind. Mo Salah didn't get a kick.
"Look at the goal Dan Burn scored, it was straight off the training field. It's a great header but you don't score it without the ball being served perfectly which Kieran Trippier did. I always find myself screaming 'hit the target' and that's exactly what he did and the keeper couldn't get near it.
"It was just a great header, and he is so good at that; he's such a big lad; it's hard to stop him."
Moncur jokingly takes another deep breath as we approach that 'last captain to lift a trophy' tag once again. Then quips: "I got the tag of being the last skipper to win something for Newcastle but I wasn't a bad player either you know!"
And it's right, Moncur played with and against some of the biggest names in football from Pele, George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Moore and Eusebio to name a few! He was one of the game's first big-name pundits on ITV alongside Brian Moore, Brian Clough and Jack Charlton in the 1970s, sailed the world and became a Newcastle director before taking on ambassadorial duties.
Moncur said: "The whole 'last captain to lift a cup" thing didn't start straight away because we got to the 1974 FA Cup final, and then in 1976 Newcastle got to the League Cup final.
"But the more time we spent not winning anything the more momentum it gathered. It got bigger and bigger. Even some mates would always say jokingly after each season: 'Here he is the last man to lift a trophy'. It was a nice tag or title to have but for all the wrong reasons, but I am pleased it's gone!"
Bob Moncur's 80th birthday celebrations at St James' Park (Image: chroniclelive)
However, Moncur has not lost all of his titles and until Eddie Howe's side triumph in Europe with a continental cup to show for their efforts, grainy images of the Perth-born star are massively significant.
With a smile, Moncur said to me: "Yes, somebody has already called me the 'last man to lift a European trophy for Newcastle!' So it hasn't gone completely, I guess.
"The next challenge is around the corner anyway, and that's what Eddie and the players will be looking forward to; it's to get back to the Champions League. That's the place to be. The fans wanted to win something and the Carabao Cup was it. It's the first step and hopefully the first of many.
"My phone has been going crazy with so many messages. The more years you go, the more things build up. There's a couple of generations of fans that have never seen this."
For now Tyneside is still very much in party mode but as the 2024/25 campaign winds down and we head into what will be a big 2025/26 season with Europe already confirmed. There will be new exciting goals and targets for the club.
Moncur said: "I just think back to when we won the Fairs Cup - that was supposed to be the springboard to success. We actually made a few quid from it and we paid £100,000 for Jinky Jim Smith. That was supposed to be the start of building, we got into Europe again and did OK but it never really took off like it should have done.
"That was disappointing; the likes of Pop Robson left because he decided we weren't moving the right way, but hopefully, it doesn't happen again. We hope that it's the start of a lot more. Hopefully, with Eddie, we are going in the right direction, and it certainly feels that way."
So how does it feel to see 56 years of hurt wiped away and no longer be the last captain to lift a cup? Moncur said: "I thought it was brilliant the way the lads did it on Sunday, Bruno, Kieran Trippier and Jamaal Lascelles doing it together was special.
"The sad thing as you get older you will become less popular or well known. When I was playing I wondered how they dealt with it and I'd talk to Jackie (Milburn) and Len Shackleton, who were both journalists by then, who would both have been worth £100m these days.
"When we won the Fairs Cup in 1969, Wor Jackie, for example, was saying what I said on Sunday - other players, the current crop, are having their time to bask in the glory. The game has changed massively of course in terms of wages.
"You always wonder what they'd think now about the players getting £150,000 a week regardless as they won all sorts in the 1950s for very little. I never forget Jackie and Len and they'd always say they'd had their time.
"It's not a nice thought and I've lived with it for years but it stopped bothering me a long time ago. Where I am very fortunate is that Newcastle United have given me a great life.
"I've had more than one career at St James' Park, as a player and captain and they got me back as ambassador, that is a great role for me. I can't thank the club enough. It is great and I love it as it is a great job. I am now doing things that bring so much joy to people and to me.
"We ring around the fans that maybe can't make the game now or have been admitted to hospital, and I might ring and say it's me Bob Moncur and sometimes people say: 'I don't believe you!"
"Then they realise and they start thinking about this game or that game or that goal or that tackle, it's beautiful to play that part.
"We have the Memory Cafe now at St James' Park where we work with people who have dementia or Alzheimers disease. It's a truly special experience because we have had 3,000 participants. To see somebody's mind light up at a memory of an old game or a certain win or goal or player gives me a lot of pleasure."
Sunday will live long in the memory with Moncur savouring the moment with the current crop of players. He said: "After Wembley, we went to the Boxpark, and the club allowed us to share the moment with the players. I met Dan Burn, congratulated him, and got a picture.
"It was a joy, I was fortunate to be there. I have met the chairman (Yasir Al-Rumayyan) and he told me his plans. You can see the ambition is there now."
The dream for Moncur and the fans now is that Newcastle are soon conquering Europe just like the summer of '69. As we wrap up, Bob says: "Now wouldn't that be special too?"
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