United’s glorious, dramatic title win was all about fans

TOON ARMY PLAYED VITAL ROLE IN PROMOTION PUSH

HOWAY the Lads!

What a brilliant end to a fantastic season that was.

I have said all campaign long I thought Newcastle United had the best squad, the best manager and the best team – and they proved it in the end.

It does not matter if you only clinch the title in the 89th minute – the table never lies.

Just look at my old club Portsmouth. They also secured the League Two title thanks to some late drama.

That club has been averaging more than 18,000 at Fratton Park in the fourth tier of English football.

Now that is absolutely magnificent. That club deserves success, it deserves to move back up the leagues, and I was delighted for Paul Cook.

We were thick as thieves when we were team-mates at Coventry and I know he would probably have been sacked if he had not taken Pompey up this year, so it is great to see.

However, back to Newcastle – the deserved Championship-title winners.

Look, plenty of credit to Brighton because they pushed Rafa Benitez’s men all the way.

Chris Hughton looked gutted in the end to have missed out on the title and he will not want our sympathy.

Yet it is a nice touch the former Newcastle boss has achieved promotion again, seven years after taking the Magpies back to the big time.

At the start of the season I expected United to run away with the league and finish 10 points ahead of everyone else.

Take Brighton out of the equation and the next closest challengers to Newcastle were Reading – a full nine points behind.

A return of 94 points really is excellent and I suppose we owe Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish a pint for scoring that 89th-minute equaliser.

The atmosphere at St James’ Park once news filtered through just looked immense.

The players and the coaching staff deserve to celebrate the achievement of this season because it has been magnificent.

Rafa built a squad to win the division and that is precisely what they did.

However, Sunday for me was all about the supporters.

That trophy was for the fans, who have followed the club in their thousands both home and away.

Without them, as Rafa Benitez has said a number of times, this season’s success would not have been possible.

The celebrations at the full-time whistle were magnificent and I am sure supporters across Tyneside sang and partied long into the night.

On the final day of last season, when Newcastle hammered Spurs 5-1, the dream of a rebuild job under Rafa started in earnest.

The first part of that job is complete with promotion - now we can attack the Premier League once again.

The title was the icing on the cake in what has been a tremendous season – and I cannot wait for next year already!