LONDON: Newcastle ended their 56-year trophy drought in style as Dan Burns and Alexander Isak secured a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the League Cup final on Wednesday.
Eddie Howe’s team made history at Wembley with a solid performance that surprised the Premier League (EPL) leaders.
Burn put Newcastle ahead in the 45th minute and Isak’s 27th goal in all competitions saw them consolidate their lead after 52 minutes.
Federico Chiesa pulled one back in the fourth minute of injury time, but Newcastle held on to lift their first major trophy since the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969.
The success in the old name competition for the Europa League has been forgotten, but this long-awaited victory will forever remain in the memories of Newcastle fans who turned half of Wembley into a sea of black and white as they celebrated the victory with joy.
It is also Newcastle’s first major domestic title in 70 years since the 1955 FA Cup.
Since the Magpies lifted the Fairs Inter-Cities Cup, 30 different English teams have won the title, while Liverpool have collected 38 major trophies in that period.
But after losing the 2023 League Cup final to Manchester United, Howe’s team returned to Wembley and finally set a record.
“We are aware of the history and we want to do the club proud. We want to score goals, we want to perform well and we want to win,” said Howe.
“We’re starting something. I thought we were great today.”
Newcastle have been relegated to the second division five times since winning their last trophy, with club legends such as Alan Shearer, Paul Gascoigne and Malcolm MacDonald failing to win the title while playing on Tyneside.
Except for a brief period when Kevin Keegan’s team challenged for the title in the 1990s, Newcastle endured a decade without any notable achievements that made them the butt of jokes for a long time.
That all changed in 2021 when a Saudi-backed consortium took over from unpopular owner Mike Ashley and quickly secured Howe as their manager.
Thanks to Howe’s wise leadership and Saudi financial support, Newcastle went from a relegation contender to a cup winner.
The defeat was another heartbreaking blow for Liverpool just days after they were knocked out in the last 16 of the Champions League on penalties at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.
But despite failing to win their first trophy under boss Arne Slot, Liverpool still lead by 12 points at the top of the EPL, getting closer to equalling the record of 20 English top league titles.
“It was a very disappointing result. The game went the way Newcastle wanted it to. They deserved to win. We failed to deal with their style. They won more aerial battles than we did,” said Slot.
Liverpool are 23 points clear of Newcastle in sixth in the league and have not lost to their opponents in 17 games since 2015.