Here’s hoping that these Toon murals at the Fat Ox are set for a change | OneFootball

My fellow Newcastle United fans who I associate with on a regular basis in North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, all appear calm as we enter the two week countdown to the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley on the 16th March.

Definitely not as excitable as we were two years ago before facing Manchester United.

It’s not because we are facing a much better team in Liverpool, than the Salfords this time though.

In 2023, it was over twenty years since our supporters had last walked up Wembley Way.

The razzmatazz and feel good factor in the build up to that occasion was a constant in the pubs and clubs that I frequented whilst out socialising.

Two years on and the pub windows are once again painted in Toon murals, but there is more of a feeling of restraint amongst the locals and natives, not letting our hearts rule our heads.

That is good, because in the 2023 final the region’s hopes were very high, some folk probably got overcome with the emotion of the occasion.

I think this impacted on the team who in hindsight never really turned up, playing pretty poorly on the day.

We are going to be a bigger underdog against Liverpool but lessons from 2023 will have been learned.

I have seen plenty of underdogs winning the domestic cups, many of them being unfashionable clubs.

A lot of Geordies have big hearts and exhale confident vibes, so this sometimes leads to folk from outside the region believing we have ideas above our station.

In my lifetime, I have never thought this to be the case.

This time we are heading into the Carabao Cup Final with a sense of realism, but it certainly is no David and Goliath contest.

It’s a game between one team (Liverpool) who are generally excellent, versus a very capable and good one on their day, who are progressively getting better (Newcastle United).

As long as Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United team show the same passion as their loyal supporters at Wembley, I’ll be a proud and happy man.

And as I said to my mate Auld Dag yesterday, “wouldn’t it be lovely if the Toon murals on the Fat Ox were being changed from “Carabao Cup Final’ to ‘Carabao Cup Winners”, after the 16th.