It was just after half past three in the febrile city centre of Newcastle when two men in hard hats appeared on the top of the Sandman Hotel.
On the streets below, the atmosphere had been fizzing with anticipation all day as fans young and old, from families blowing vuvuzelas to well-oiled twenty somethings wielding cans of beer, came together to salute the Newcastle United squad who had broken the spell of seven decades without a domestic trophy.
But the Geordie party of a lifetime needed its iconic, Instagrammable moment and here it was: two workers abseiling down the side of the glass fronted building to unfurl a giant Tifo style flag of Eddie Howe punching the air in celebration.
It was – like the Carabao Cup-winning performance it marked – a daring and ambitious display by the Wor Flags group with plenty of potential to blow up in their faces. But despite a collective holding of breath they managed to pull it off perfectly.
Karen Kilgour, the leader of Newcastle Council, described pulling together Saturday’s celebrations on the city’s Town Moor as the equivalent of “organising Glastonbury festival in a couple of weeks” and she wasn’t wrong.
An estimated 150,000 lined the open-topped bus route from St James’ Park with the same again inside a free, e-ticketed event to see the players and various special guests and get their own “I was there” moment.
Fans climbed trees and lamposts, scaled statues outside St James’ Park and braved the bracing winds that swept over the Town Moor to acclaim their heroes.
300,000 Geordies lined the streets of Newcastle on Saturday (Photo: Getty)(Photo: Getty)(Photo: Getty)
In front of the main stage fans stood for almost five hours to be able to get the best view when the players eventually emerged just after 6pm. It really was some celebration.
Everywhere you looked there were people in black and white streaming into the city centre. Ditching the car with the roads closed for the parade I walked a couple of miles from the leafy suburb of Gosforth – good luck getting onto public transport quickly, with queues snaking round the block.
Almost every business or office block was displaying pictures of the winning team. Greggs had LED displays claiming NUFC 2025 were “baked in history” and black and white flags fluttered from pub windows.
Only the Carabao Cup? Good luck to the celebration police trying to spin that line at Newcastle’s party of a lifetime.
There was only unapologetic, unabashed euphoria here. From Alan Shearer almost choking up on stage as he said with bracing sincerity that the Wembley win was “the best day of his life” to the disbelief of Bruno Guimaraes singing a song in praise of Sandro Tonali that included the line that he “hates f**king Sunderland” on live TV.
Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes was a star of the show (Photo: Reuters)Newcastle goalkeeper Mark Gillespie and midfielder Joelinton join the celebrations (Photo: Getty) TV stars Ant and Dec were part of the open top bus parade (Photo: Getty)
Bruno kept taking the mic off Ant and Dec but they didn’t mind. Even Alexander Isak, the laconic personification of cool, tried his hand at Geordie dialect in front of the gathered thousands.
No doubt Newcastle’s rivals will have hated it. The rest of the country was probably bemused by it. But it did feel pretty special to be part of it, either standing backstage as the wide-eyed players stepped off the two buses that had snaked through the city centre from St James’ Park to the main event at the Town Moor or witnessing compere Ant McPartlin hugging everyone in sight and saying he had “achieved his lifelong dream” by being part of the procession.
If Ant was overwhelmed he wasn’t the only one. Howe is a really fascinating character, much more rounded and emotional than the version he presents in front of the press conference cameras or in the soundbites that emerge during the season.
It has often felt during the last fortnight that he is still coming to terms with the magnitude of what he has managed to achieve at Newcastle in releasing the black and white genie from the bottle.
He looked genuinely choked as he was quizzed about the flag by Declan Donnelly as the open-topped bus snaked slowly through the city centre. “I have a pretty unique personality and I feel so privileged that the club and the supporters have accepted me as they have. Thank you to all the supporters,” he said.
Howe insists Newcastle must kick on
Howe wants Newcastle to add to their trophy collection (Photo: Getty)
Eddie Howe said his players have to use the “energy” generated by their Carabao Cup win to power their push for a Champions League place.
An estimated 300,000 fans gathered on Saturday to acclaim Newcastle’s players after their historic 2-1 win over Liverpool a fortnight ago in memorable scenes. But after the weekend party it is back to business on Wednesday with Howe admitting that the club’s thoughts should now be “on the future”.
“We are hungry for more but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We have 10 huge Premier League games to go back to and try focus on that. I think the taste of success leaves you hungry for more days like this,” he said.
“I hope we can use that energy that’s out there. Listen there’s no guarantees. Look, there’s two ways we can react to this cup final win and we have to use it for a positive, not the negative.
“We have to use the love and feeling we’ve got today as a driver to work harder, train better and to prepare better and our focus now will be on the future.”
Later, after completing the last of many rounds of interviews on the day, Howe sought out every single one of the North-East press pack to shake their hands.
There is a humility about him which probably lies at the heart of his success – none of what he achieves seems to be about feeding his own ego.
It was genuinely touching on stage to see him call members of Newcastle’s backroom staff – long-serving team operations manager Tony Toward and kitmen Ray Thompson and Neil Stoker among them – to lift the trophy in front of the crowd.
“There is no other city like Newcastle when it comes to football,” he said on stage.
“We are nothing as a football club without you the fans, we need you, your passion, your loyalty and your unwavering support. And just know, we hope this is just the start of things, just know we will give absolutely everything we have to bring success to this football club.”
Inevitably, talk has turned to what happens next at Newcastle. Many have spoken about this being the start of a dynasty and Shearer suggested as much when he pointed out that Chelsea and Manchester City kicked on after ending their own long waits for trophies in the last couple of decades.
But even if Newcastle do go on to win more, it won’t feel like this did. Partly that is because the club – bankrolled, lest we forget, by Saudi billions and all the questions that come with that – still has a slightly careworn feel to it.
It is nowhere near being a ruthless, well-drilled winning machine and this success has been hard-earned, featuring players like Dan Burn and unsung hero Jacob Murphy who have had to tread the road less travelled to get here.
Cup final hero Dan Burn lifts the trophy in front of adoring fans (Photo: AFP)
But also because for many supporters it is freighted with emotion. Trawl Facebook and X and you will see the many fans mentioning relatives who loved the club but passed away before they got to witness Newcastle winning things.
Poignant posts from fans who took items of clothing that belonged to a passed on father or grandparent to Wembley underline that point.
That emotion needed an outlet and on Saturday it arrived with one final euphoric party. Tears were shed and memories were made.
“Whatever happens after this. Whatever we go on to win, none of them will be better than this,” a surprisingly emotional Shearer said on stage, voice cracking as he spoke about his recently departed father.
“Whatever happens to me, no matter how long I’m here for, I can die happy knowing I saw this moment. Winning at Wembley, it was the best day I’ve had in football, the best day of my life.”
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