Eddie Howe, Wembley win, Pre-Wembley with the Whickham Mags and the tears are back | OneFootball

A couple of monthss back, I had an ‘Open letter to Eddie Howe’ published in The Mag.

In that letter, I was honest about the doubts that had crept into my mind earlier in the season, saying that we hadn’t made the best of starts, and I’d been questioning his tactical nous.

Before then going on to say that he had weathered the storm and proved me and the other doubting Thomas’ wrong, that we were flying with regard to that second Wembley appearance coming up in March, with also a real possibility of grabbing another Champions League berth.

I also pointed out my irritation surrounding the League Cup Final loss of 2023, before annihilating the same opposition less than six weeks later in April 2023.

I summed matters up with this:

“Me and the lad will be bonding in the smoke on the weekend of 15/16 March. I am looking forward to it immensely, but it’ll be a very different experience to the one we had in 2023, partly because the lad can now drink me under the table, but also because I am 100% certain that you will bring home the cup this time, no matter the opponent and no matter the outcome of those previous visits to the Empire Stadium during my lifetime. Should you do this, you will achieve immortality, so there’s no better incentive. When returning to Tyneside, your knighthood will await.”

What great foresight on my part!

The 2025 experience turned out to be very different in so many ways.

We found a watering hole called the Lemon Tree, not far from Covent Garden, on the Saturday evening. Where it seems we gatecrashed a gathering of the Whickham Mags (photo below) who were busy belting out renditions of all the classics.

Joe Harvey took a holiday (full version) and the Albert Luque ‘one nil down, four one up’ effort being sung with particular gusto. The one that went ‘When Bruno, goes up, to lift the Carabao Cup, We’ll be there, We’ll be there” went on and on, and each time it sounded like it was petering out, back it came. Marvellous!

That night, I made the mistake of going pint for pint with a 19-year-old who now has considerable experience of the drinking game. Big mistake.

At 0630 Sunday, I woke with the worst hangover in over two decades and felt like I would have to give Wembley Stadium a body swerve later in the day.

It’s amazing what a couple of paracetamol, a couple of hours extra sleep and a hair of the dog can do, albeit my alcohol intake was much suppressed on the day of the Final, something that worked to my considerable advantage, being in full control of my senses come 1630 and not having to pop downstairs every quarter of an hour thereafter for the regulation comfort break.

We all know how NUFC played and how it ended.

I believe that Eddie Howe underestimated what this all meant in 2023. Following his tactical mastering of Arne Slot, in his post-match interview, Eddie was asked about the defeat at Anfield a couple of weeks earlier and with great honesty, admitted that Newcastle United hadn’t shown their hand, that they’d maybe held something back in that game. To me, that demonstrates how focused he and the rest of the team were on delivering us that trophy.

The reaction has been everything I would have expected and more besides. Some people, those from outside the region without any connection to Newcastle United, just don’t get it. Not that it matters, we all do.

I was pointed at a Twitter feed the other day which showed the post-match reaction from the players to a slowed down version of Local Hero. The tears were back. I’d encourage readers to find it and watch/listen.

Saturday promises to be mental. There’s been much said, most of it negative if we’re being honest, about the town moor event, but we at least have a bus parade of sorts, truncated in the sense that it’ll skirt the northern extremities of the city centre before heading up the Great North Road. Good luck to anyone trying to get a decent vantage point on Percy Street.

Eddie Howe is now immortal. He just is.

To the tune of the ‘ballad of the green beret’, here goes my attempt to register a terrace anthem for the next generation: