It took them four attempts, but when Newcastle United finally brought the FA Cup back to Tyneside in 1910, the entire city welcomed them off the train at Central Station.
' United’s home coming to Tyneside with the FA Cup was sensational', explains the club's official historian Paul Joannou on ' Chronicled ', our podcast series covering the entire history of Newcastle United. ' This really didn’t happen when they won their league titles. The English Cup was very, very different.'
The English Cup was what the FA Cup was known as back in 1910 when Newcastle United first laid hands on it. The club had lost three finals in 1905, 1906 and 1908, and it had taken a replay in 1910 to see off Second Division Barnsley.
'You can just see a little silver trophy among the crowd,' points out Joannou, 'that was a different piece of silverware to the famous cup we all know now. It was much smaller, finely engraved and United were the last holders of that particular cup before a new one was introduced.'
The trophy was sold at auction last year by West Ham United co-owner David Gold for £760,000. Gold bought the trophy in 2005 for £478,000 and at the start of 2021 it was revealed that the winning bidder from last year's auction was Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
'It’s a wonderful picture,' says Joannou, 'there’s half a dozen like this but this is the best one. The side went on their very first procession with the trophy on an open top tram. You can see a mass of people outside the main portico of Central Station and up on one of the balconies are three waitresses in white outfits. They had a bird's eye view of the team moving through the crowd.'
As ever, Newcastle did things the hard way when it came to sealing their first ever FA Cup win. To hear the amazing story listen to Episode 6 of Chronicled: The History of Newcastle United on the Everything is Black and White podcast.
It's free and available on all major podcast platforms and also by clicking HERE
