“After years and years of hurt, it was just glorious,” said 67-year-old Paul Wearmouth outside St James’ Park on the morning after the night before. “It was tremendous. I’ll be honest, I was crying. They were tears of jubilation.”
Wearmouth, a retired school caretaker, has been a fan of Newcastle United all his life and can tell you at length about how difficult a commitment that can be.
Pedants can say that it has been 56 years since Newcastle won a major trophy. But that was the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup against Újpesti Dózsa of Hungary. The real major trophy, in the eyes of Newcastle fans, was the 1955 FA Cup win against Manchester City.
Which means Sunday’s Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool at Wembley ended 70 long – excruciatingly long – years of hurt.
“We will remember this day,” said Wearmouth, who was thinking of departed relatives when he was watching at home, his bungalow in Bedlington, Northumberland.
“When any of these players come back, if they are playing for different teams, they will get a hero’s welcome because that’s what we are. We recognise history. We don’t forget.
“I’m so proud. All the players were up for it … they had fire in their bellies.”
Wearmouth was soaking up the atmosphere outside the stadium where a stream of fans posed for photographs at statues of Alan Shearer and Sir Bobby Robson, Newcastle legends who, nevertheless, did not win a major trophy.
One of them was travel agency owner David Carruthers, 63, a lifelong supporter who had travelled up from York to watch the match in a Newcastle pub with his wife Diane.
“It’s not easy being a Newcastle fan,” he said. “It’s challenging. It’s easy being a fan of teams like Liverpool but you always support your team – and then you get days like this.
“We had an amazing, unbelievable night watching it and it is good for the city as well.”
All clubs say they have the most passionate, committed fans but some would say Newcastle fans have that little bit more. The celebrations in both London and Newcastle were, to say the least, wild.
On BBC Radio Newcastle, wall-to-wall football chat on Monday, one listener was in touch to say he was changing the name of his dog to Eddie Howe.
“Let us know,” said hoarse-voiced breakfast host Matt Bailey. “Are you renaming your pet? The kids?”
In Berlin on Sunday night, Sam Fender, an ardent Newcastle fan, changed a lyric in Little Bit Closer from “What is God? I never found it.” to “What is God? His name is Dan Burn.”
It was Burn, a one-time Asda trolley pusher from Blyth, who achieved Newcastle immortality by scoring the first goal on Sunday and going on to be given the player of the match award.
On Monday, many fans felt compelled to go to the Antony Gormley statue, the Angel of the North, helpfully adorned with a Newcastle shirt by persons unknown.
They included Thomas England, 33, who had travelled up from Merthyr Tydfil with his young daughter Amelia to watch the match in Newcastle. “The atmosphere was electric. The euphoria was absolutely amazing,” he said.
“It was an important win because it has been 70 years. And also you look at Manchester City – they won the FA Cup and that’s when they started steamrollering the rest of the world so hopefully this is the start of something big for us.”
Joiner Tony Hastings watched the match at home in Durham with his partner Heather Wilkins, a dog groomer. “It was great, it was history,” he said.
“There can’t be many people alive who remember the last big trophy we brought home so just to witness it was amazing. Newcastle fans have been waiting for days like this for years and years.”
Eva Lau was posing in front of the Angel with a bunch of friends over from Manchester. Of course she watched the match. “It was great. I just kept shouting and shouting at the television with my son [14-year-old Ivan]. We loved it.”
Hayley Khan moved to Australia 14 years ago but is Newcastle forever and watched the match on a trip visiting relatives with her husband Zee and one-year-old daughter Taliah, proudly wearing a Newcastle strip.
“It was really good, they played so well,” she said. “Everyone is happy although we did watch it with a diehard Mackem [Sunderland fan]. He was absolutely furious.
“At the end they said you’d have to have a heart of stone or be a Mackem to not be happy. He said: ‘I’m both.’”
