Victory in cup would serve as catalyst for club’s year of change

United skipper Jimmy Scoular receives the FA Cup from the Queen in 1955 – the Magpies’ third Wembley triumph in five seasons

COVID has beaten United of late, as have 11 sides across two competitions, but no more thank you.

This is a new year with a new manager and new owners, and it must be a new beginning. A new Newcastle.

The Magpies have played 20 matches so far this campaign which is a fair chunk, and won just one.

Out of the League Cup at the very first hurdle despite being drawn at home, they currently sit second-bottom of the Premier League.

Yet as we tiptoe into 2022, the sap is on the rise. All is not as black as coal. Geordies believe the sun could be e peeping through into our r barren world.

However, hope has to be grounded in good soil and that means a dreadful record of failure has to be instantly addressed.

That is why a home victory over ver modest League One opposition becomes much more important than it first appears.

Cambridge United must be banished from the FA Cup when Covid releases its clammy grip because Newcastle cannot afford any more humiliation of any sort.

A foothold has to be established for the Premier League climb ahead. It will invigorate the dressing room and the crowd before Watford arrive offering gifts to the confident and the bold.

Therefore over to you Eddie Howe. Put out a side good enough to get the job done and demand they do it. Build on the feelgood factor because it has been a long time in coming but will only be retained by results.

United have, astonishingly, sold out a match which in the recent past would have attracted only around 20,000. That is how much faith has been restored, heightened by Kieran Trippier arriving and marking the opening of the January transfer window so positively and the Mags’ last performance against Manchester United producing a significant lift. It was the best of the season against renowned opposition.

The FA Cup may not carry the mass appeal or be the season’s jewel in the crown that it once unquestionably was but for New Newcastle it has real glit glittering history. Th They were once fet feted as Cup e experts, s spectacularly climaxing with three Wembley s successes in a g glorious fiveye year period in the early e fifties but the there is always a down side and they were beaten by non-league part-timers Bedford Town at home in 1964 and Hereford United eight years later.

In recent times the competition has disgracefully never been taken seriously, but while victory over Cambridge is a must – no mistake about that – this is a unique season of change when the priority has to be Premier League survival which would be the footbridge to what is to come.

However, achieving top-flight redemption would become even more difficult on the back of another cup exit inflicted by those of a lesser stature. So go out and finish the job.

The sap is on the rise. All is not as black as coal. Geordies believe the sun could be peeping through into our barren world