Crystal Palace joined Newcastle United in winning a major domestic honour this season and club legend Alan Shearer sees parallels between the two sides.
Indeed, Newcastle United ended 70 years of hurt back in March, lifting a major piece of domestic silverware at Wembley.
Newcastle won the Carabao Cup by beating Liverpool in the final, while Palace made history on Saturday by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup showpiece.
Eberechi Eze scored the winner as the Eagles won a major trophy for the first time in their history, sparking jubilant scenes of celebration amongst the Palace supporters.
Shearer was on commentary duty for the BBC and naturally saw similarities between the two cup victories.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Alan Shearer compares Newcastle United and Crystal Palace fans
Writing in his BBC Sport column on Sunday, the Newcastle United legend compared the two fanbases.
Shearer believes the fact both teams won the cup competitions means the 2024-25 season has been the year of the “underdog”.
“First Newcastle, now Crystal Palace. As I said on BBC One after Saturday’s FA Cup final, 2025 is the year of the underdog – and I love it!” he wrote.
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He also said he was reminded of the Toon faithful at Wembley as Palace fans supported their team.
Newcastle ended a 56-year trophy drought by winning the League Cup.
Crystal Palace won their first ever major trophy after beating Man City at Wembley.
The English domestic trophies went to the underdogs this year pic.twitter.com/whh15gVQ6s
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) May 17, 2025
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Shearer added: “Like them, I had waited my entire life to see my team win a major trophy. For Palace supporters, this is their first piece of silverware in their history and, from where I was doing my co-commentary at Wembley, I could tell how much it meant to them.
“They reminded me of the Newcastle fans with the way they roared their team on from the moment they got into the ground.”
Newcastle United want FA Cup win after Carabao Cup success
It feels somewhat greedy to want more silverware instantly after ending one of the most infamous trophy droughts in English football.
Still, such is the level of ambition at St James’ Park these days, that’s exactly what’s on the agenda.
Club chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan vowed that Newcastle want to win more trophies after the Carabao Cup, and the FA Cup would be a welcome addition to Eddie Howe’s list of achievements.
Honour Number of times Newcastle have won it
First division 4
Second division 4
FA Cup 6
League Cup 1
FA Charity Shield 1
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1
Newcastle United’s list of major honours
Newcastle have won the FA Cup six times and only seven teams in the storied history of the competition have lifted it more often, albeit the Toon haven’t done so since 1955.
If this season has proven anything, it’s that the teams just below the established elite can really challenge.