Newcastle United strike FA Cup gold twice in a row
IT was on this day in 1952 at around ten to three in the afternoon when two great men came face to face.
The meeting came at Wembley Stadium where Newcastle United were facing Arsenal in the FA Cup final.
A Chronicle photographer was on hand to capture the moment Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the nation’s revered wartime leader, warmly shook hands with Jackie Milburn, United’s prolific 27-year-old centre-forward.
Having beaten Blackpool a year earlier to lift the trophy, this was United’s second successive final.
This time, on route to Wembley, they’d disposed of Aston Villa, Spurs, Swindon, Portsmouth and Blackburn.
It was English football’s first Chilean star, George Robledo, who headed in the hard-fought game’s only goal to clinch victory.
United were famously in the midst of a five-year golden era and they would lift the FA Cup once again in 1955.
As for the 1952 final, it saw them make history as the first team to win four Wembley finals, and equal a 61-year-old record of winning the cup in successive seasons.
100,000 fans watched the game with thousands more - in that pre-television age - tuning in on their radios at home on Tyneside.
It was also the second time the Magpies had sunk the Gunners in the final.
They’d beaten Arsenal 2-1 in 1932, but sadly wouldn’t mange the feat a third time in 1998, losing 2-0 to Arsene Wenger’s league champions.
But that was still many years in the future.
Back on May 3, 1952, the Chronicle reported how: “London town belonged to Tyneside for the second year running.
“Every Geordie supporter who made his way through the great crowds of the West End knew that the most fabulous club of modern times had made history.”