A Chance To Make History... Again

The defeat at Sunderland is now history but on Wednesday at SJP we have the chance to make the type of history we want to remember - taking another step to retaining the Carabou Cup.

Winning the Carabou Cup and bringing a domestic trophy back to SJP for the first time in 70 years was the dream I had waited 60 odd long years for to become a reality.

Since the first time my Dad Bill lifted me over the turnstiles at SJP as a nipper I have been a Toon fanatic, inspired from an early age by tales of the three cup wins in the 50's.

I had a taste of cup glory in 1969 when we won the Fairs Cup - what a fantastic night that was as Bobby Moncur of all players scored two goals in the 3-0 first leg final win against the then mighty Ujpest Dosza.

Never a team to make things easy for us fans, we were lucky to be only 2-0 down after being slaughtered in the first half of the away leg.

Years later Bobby Moncur told me that our legendary manager Joe Harvey roused the spirits of the shellshocked team with this half time talk "Score one goal against this lot and the f*****s will collapse".

Within two minutes of the restart Bobby scored from a corner meaning Dosza needed another three goals to win on the old away goals count double rule.

And collapse is exactly what they did with the Mighty Mags running out 3-2 winners on the night and a staggering 6-2 on aggregate - against a team that had beaten the mighty Don Revie's Leeds team home and away in the semi-final.

But, despite being at the first leg I wasn't there to see us actually win and lift the cup.

Little did I know, and would never have imagined, that it would be 56 long years before I would see that day. And now, we have a great chance to do it two years running.

So... as hard as it is, let's try and at least stick Sunday to the back of our mind and build ourselves up to what is sure to be a supercharged and emotional QF cup night at SJP.

Winning a cup has a magical aura for us Toon fans, deeply ingrained in our psyche, and that glorious day in May hasn't dimmed the aura at all... it has only made it shine brighter.

Retaining the Carabou Cup would be a fantastic achievement and one that is within our grasp. Beat Fulham and win one more game and we are back at Wembley.

Whatever team Eddie puts out - I bet they'll be hyped up and supercharged for this game, desperate to atone for the performance against Sunderland, and equally desperate to to keep us on track for a crack at winning the cup, again.

I am absolutely convinced we'll come out flying and my usual fiver is going on a 3-0 march into the semi-final for the Toon.

Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

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