When the Magpies were Cup kings
IT’S FA Cup weekend - and it’s fair to say the once-gleaming lustre of the grand old trophy has dimmed in recent times. Newcastle United host Blackburn Rovers in the third round at St James’ Park today.
In an age when the Premier League and Sky Sports are the be-all-and-end-all of domestic football, a smaller than usual crowd is expected to descend on Gallowgate.
Ticket prices have been slashed and the stadium’s upper tier will be closed for the 5.30pm kick-off.
And in a competition where United were once renowned as one of England’s finest FA Cup sides, the club’s record of late has been dismal.
Characterising the profound lack of ambition and excitement of the Mike Ashley era, Newcastle United have not once progressed beyond the fourth round during his grim tenure.
It used to be so different. There was a time when clubs rested players in league games to save them for the highly prized FA Cup. The opposite typically applies today.
In the pre-Premier League era, FA Cup attendances at St James’ Park were often larger than league games. In 1974, for example, more than 52,000 turned up to watch the quarter-final clash with Nottingham Forest, in a season when the average league gate was just under 33,000.
Older fans will remember the glorious Cup wins of 1951, 1952 and 1955. The trophy had also returned to Tyneside in 1932, before that in 1924 and, for the very first
time, in 1910. It caused a sensation.
King Edward VII was on the throne, Tyneside was a vibrant industrial powerhouse, football was booming and the FA Cup was its holy grail.
When Newcastle United lifted the coveted trophy for the first time, on April 28 that year, the city exploded in celebration.
The club, in the midst of a truly golden era, had already won the league title three times in the previous five seasons. But the Cup was the big one everybody wanted.
United’s brilliant Edwardian team had, somewhat surprisingly, lost three quick-fire FA Cup finals - in 1905, 1906 and 1909 at the “unlucky” Crystal Palace stadium - but 1910 would be the year when the dream was realised.
Yet again, Crystal Palace initially proved not quite to the Toon’s liking, and 76,980 watched a 1-1 draw against Barnsley, with Jackie Rutherford netting for United just seven minutes before the end.
Five days later, on a Thursday afternoon in the replay at Everton’s Goodison Park, the FA Cup bogey was finally laid to rest.
More than 76,000 fans saw two goals from United’s prolific Albert Shepherd put Barnsley to the sword, in a rain-lashed, bad-tempered game on Merseyside.
Chronicle reporter, ‘Mr John Cameron’ wrote: “United may now rest content. They have won everything they have entered for, but the Cup has been a great struggle for them.”
And he added: “Their supporters would almost have been done with them if they had gone under to Barnsley.”
The victorious team - who were paid the then considerable sum of £50 by the club’s directors - travelled home by train from Liverpool, via Carlisle, to Newcastle.
Large crowds were waiting to cheer them at suburban stations as they approached the city. When they arrived at Newcastle Central Station in the early evening, tens of thousands of delirious fans were packed into the streets as the Cup heroes transported in horse-drawn opentopped carriages - paraded the trophy along Grainger Street and Westgate Road.
Tyneside celebrated for a week in the wake of the achievement. It was a glorious time to be a Newcastle United supporter.