The wait for a trophy for Newcastle fans is over – thanks to their very own local hero Dan Burn.
Burn, who comes from Blyth and first made his name at Darlington 15 years ago, opened the scoring with a powerful header as the Toon came out 2-1 winners in the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool
Geordies had flooded into London over the weekend hoping they could see Newcastle win their first domestic trophy in 70 years.
The Newcastle fans had taken over Covent Garden and Kings Cross on Saturday night in anticipation of a victory.
They entered the stadium with high spirits believing they could finally do it.
As the whistle blew for kick off, the Tynesiders let out an almighty roar which embodied the performance about to come.
Racing out the blocks the men in black and white put Liverpool under pressure from the off with their high-tempo offence creating early chances to knock the Scousers out of their rhythm.
The first big chance of the game came as Newcastle broke behind the Liverpool backline with the ball being laid back to Sandro Tonali whose rasping drive was narrowly wide.
A contentious decision followed when some fans and players thought Kieran Trippier had handled the ball in his own area, but VAR cleared the incident to the annoyance of Liverpool.
Then in the first minute of added time, local hero Burn got the run on his man to head Newcastle into the lead sending the black and white side of Wembley into pandemonium.
Photo courtesy of Iain Buist /Chronicle Live
Early in the second half Newcastle thought they had doubled their lead when Alexander Isak put the ball in the back of the net, only for it to be disallowed due to Bruno Guimarães being deemed offside.
However, Isak would have the ball in the back of the net again and it would count this time as Jacob Murphy nodded the ball down to the Swede, who rifled the ball into the bottom corner as the Newcastle dream was starting to become a reality.
Nick Pope then came up with a crucial save to retain the two-goal cushion for the Magpies as he palmed a Curtis Jones shot over the bar.
Federico Chiesa set the Geordie hearts racing as in added time. Bruno Guimarães was dispossessed by Harvey Elliott, who slipped the ball through to Chiesa to slot past Nick Pope.
With time left on the clock Newcastle fans were worried. Surprisingly Liverpool had no more shots as the Toon ran down the clock to secure their first domestic trophy since the FA Cup in 1955.
When the final whistle went Geordie roars filled the stadium, with generations of Newcastle fans all feeling the same emotion – and almost all for the first time.
Eddie Howe had taken the club from fighting relegation to winning a domestic trophy in only three seasons – and the only way is up from here.
