Newcastle United love affair with the League Cup – Scarcely believable | OneFootball

Newcastle United and the League Cup.

It is scarcely believable.

In 1960/61, the League Cup kicked off for the first time.

Newcastle United starting as they meant to go on.

On 10 October 1960, Colchester United hosted Newcastle United in Round One of this new competition.

Colchester United were playing in the third tier, up against top division NUFC.

Only one result possible then?

Yes, Colchester winning 4-1 and knocking Newcastle out in their first ever League Cup match.

As it happened, that season, both Newcastle United and Colchester United managed to get themselves relegated. Newcastle dropping into the second tier and Colchester ending up in the fourth tier.

In terms of the League Cup, Newcastle United set to go on a quite unbelievable run.

The first 34 seasons of the League Cup, Newcastle United managed to get past the third round on only three occasions!

For those of us around at the time, those three glorious occasions happened in a row.

In 1974/75 Newcastle reached the quarter-final, then 1975/76 losing finalists to Man City, round four in 1976/77.

Until we reached 1994/95, those were the only three times that United got past the third round in the League Cup.

Quite amazing isn’t it!

Of course, the NUFC record since then hasn’t exactly been great.

Ahead of Eddie Howe taking over team affairs, this was the entire history of Newcastle United in the League Cup in 62 attempts:

First round exit – Once

Second round exit – Twenty two times

Third round exit – Twenty times

Fourth round exit – Ten times

Quarter-Final exit – Eight times

Lost in final – Once

Difficult to believe just how bad Newcastle United have been across the history of this competition.

Especially when you consider as well that for the vast majority of these seasons, Newcastle United entered the competition at the second round stage.

Plus, in a number of seasons when playing in Europe, it meant entering at the third round stage.

Since Eddie Howe arrived, in the context of the overall League Cup history of NUFC, the results have been on a whole other level.

Losing finalists in the 2022/23 season, quarter-finalists in 2023/24, now in another quarter-final this 2024/25 season.

Going to the matches back in the day, I think over the course of some twenty or so years from the late 1970s onwards, I saw United win less games in the League Cup than I have seen us win under Eddie Howe these past 28 months!

My final word on this League Cup shambles is a positive one.

If Newcastle beat Brentford on Wednesday night, just remember this.

Newcastle United have never lost a semi-final in the League Cup, in the competition’s entire 64 year history.

The fact that NUFC have only ever reached two semi-finals is of course totally irrelevant…

Interestingly, the two clubs that Newcastle United have previously met and defeated in two-legged League Cup semi-finals, are also still in this season’s  competition.

Back in the 1975/76 season, Newcastle beat Tottenham over two legs to reach the League Cup final.

Then in 2022/23, Newcastle defeated Southampton home and away to reach their second final.

Drama already for those two clubs as on Sunday night Southampton were hammered 5-0 at home by Spurs and the Saints then sacked their manager.

Tottenham are home to Man U on Thursday night but before that on Wednesday night, as well as Newcastle v Brentford and Arsenal v Palace, Southampton host Liverpool. On their way to relegation that 2022/23 season, Southampton shocked Man City with a 2-0 quarter-final defeat, can they repeat that against possible champions-elect Liverpool, on their (Southampton’s) way to another relegation?

All of course we are bothered about is Newcastle United winning on Wednesday, nothing else matters. Though having said that, if United did win, then one or two upsets elsewhere in the quarter-finals would be a nice little bonus ahead of the semi-final draw…