A lifetime without a trophy – can Newcastle finally end their wait for silverware?

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League Cup final preview 

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On Sunday, Liverpool and Newcastle United will lock horns for the first piece of silverware in England this season. In a match widely seen as heavily weighted in favour of the Anfield club, Eddie Howe’s Geordie side will have to be at their very best if they hope to inflict further anguish on Arne Slot and his team just days after they were knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain. However, Newcastle’s ambitions on Sunday go well beyond pouring salt into their opponent’s wounds, as the Premier League side look to overcome a dreadful record that has haunted their club for the best part of a century. A look at Newcastle’s last major triumph underscores just how high the stakes are.

Newcastle’s Trophy drought

As we can see in the table above, Newcastle’s 70-year wait for a major English trophy remains the longest among top-flight clubs. Their last major silverware came in 1955 when they won the FA Cup, beating Manchester City 3-1 in front of more than 100,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium. Since then, the club has endured decades of near misses and disappointments, including multiple lost finals and league campaigns that failed to deliver glory. Despite recent improvements under Howe, Newcastle’s trophy cabinet remains unchanged. Southampton and Ipswich Town are also among the longest-suffering clubs, with 50 and 47 years since their last major trophy, respectively. West Ham and Wolves are both tied at 45 years, highlighting the struggles of historically significant clubs to reclaim past success. 

Nottingham Forest, despite their illustrious European history, have also gone 35 years without lifting a major domestic honor but will undoubtedly be buoyed by their excellent run in the Premier League this season. In contrast, clubs like Man City, Manchester United, and Liverpool have enjoyed consistent success in recent years, with the latter hoping to add even more silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet with a win on Sunday. All three have won at least one major trophy within the last year, with Man City dominating the Premier League until this season. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Leicester City have also found success in the past decade, leaving Newcastle as the standout name in this unwanted record and a team in desperate need of Sunday’s trophy more than just about any other club in the Premier League this season. 

Eddie Howe’s struggles against Liverpool

While Newcastle fans will be banking on the hope that upsets are a common sight in cup finals, even the most ardent fans of the St James’s Park side may struggle to look past their manager’s worrying record against Liverpool. Since becoming manager of the Premier League club, Howe has faced Liverpool on eight occasions in all competitions and so far failed to win a single game. In fact, the English manager has only taken a solitary point off the Anfield club in that period of time and across his entire managerial career Howe has managed just one victory and two draws in 21 games, losing the accumulated matches by a combined goal deficit of 35 goals. So if Newcastle do end up winning Sunday’s cup final, it will not only be a truly historic moment for the club but also a remarkable career achievement for Howe in beating the club that he’s struggled against the most in his career to date.