Newcastle and their fans show no inclination of letting the moment go

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What comes after everything? What follows 70 years of yearning? How do you replace the magnificent obsession and where do Newcastle United go from here? Those questions might sound existential, although when an entire club’s identity of trying, failing and waiting has been upended, it is not entirely clear how it can be anything else.

After all that time, perhaps they can wait just a little while longer for the answers.

Maybe the answer is simply Sandro Tonali, who picked up the ball out by the corner flag in the 74th minute and met the ball so sweetly, so improbably that he scored from a ludicrous angle, winning a discomforting match with a startling moment which felt like an inhalation of Champagne.

“It was 70-per-cent cross and 30-per-cent shot,” the Italian said with the kind of honesty which destroys romantic-leaning match reports, but it was also 100-per-cent perfection (although if he was telling the truth, he really needs to work more on his crossing).

Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach, called it a “one in a million” thing. “I’ve seen him practising them the last few weeks from that kind of angle,” Howe countered. “Let me say one thing about Sandro. He can hit a ball like no one. When he strikes it, I fear for our goalkeeper’s wrists because he can hit it that hard. It was a big moment in the game because we needed it. It was very much in the balance. It’s a big moment in our season.”

In its first glimpse of their Carabao Cup-winning team, St James’ Park gave no inclination of letting the moment go, of consigning the recent past to history books which have traditionally read like epic tragicomedy. Victory over Brentford may have been the slow burn of a hangover being drunk away and it was full of hairy moments, but it kept the party going and, who knows, maybe the celebrations can stretch on until the end of May.

“WINNERS” it said on the front of the matchday programme, the Leazes End featured a trophy made of flags and the big screen showed a replay of that Sunday at Wembley when everything changed. Blazoned across the East Stand before kick-off, some lyrics borrowed from Sam Fender: “for all the ones who didn’t make the night,” in honour of those who did not live long enough to see Newcastle win something.

Newcastle fans borrow a lyric from Sam Fender (Serena Taylor/Getty Images)

And then the first chant from the Gallowgate, “Don’t you know, pump it up, Newcastle’s won the cup.”

Soon after that: “We’re Newcastle and we’ve won the f***ing cup.”

And then a little later: “Europe again, olé olé olé,” and, “Is this the way to Barcelona …”

For supporters of other clubs, it will feel like overkill — all this for a trophy which has often been unloved — but empathy withers in football and this is not for them. Newcastle are now in an altered landscape, the final proof of which is surely navigating a way past the kind of mid-ranking Premier League team — including Brentford away — which have often tripped them up this season.

In that context, it felt like a significant statement, if not quite of the Wembley variety then something else, lifting them to fifth in the table, with a match in hand over the teams above them. “The trophy was last week and now we need to think about a new week,” Tonali said. “Now we think only about the Champions League and not the Carabao Cup.”

It was not a comfortable evening, or, in parts, an especially convincing performance. Newcastle allowed their initial lead to slip, with Bryan Mbeumo converting from the spot after Nick Pope lazily slid in and caught Yoane Wissa, while Ethan Pinnock nodded a free header on to the post at 1-1 when he should have scored.

Even once Tonali had restored Newcastle’s advantage, the home side still stuttered to victory. Eight minutes of additional time permitted a late Brentford onslaught. With seconds remaining, Bruno Guimaraes appeared to catch Mikkel Damsgaard in the area — “it was a penalty,” Frank said — but the referee, Peter Bankes, ignored the visitors’ appeals.

Sandro Tonali scored with “70 per cent a cross” (Michelle Mercer/Getty Images)

“There have been games very similar to that — Fulham, Bournemouth — where we’ve lost and then kicked ourselves afterwards,” Howe said. “This could easily have fallen into that category, if we’d let it. But very similar to West Ham before the cup final, we ground out a massive win and that’s something you have to do in a Premier League season to be successful and to get to where we want to get to.”

If a touch of fortune was required, then at least Newcastle shaped their own destiny. There were some big interventions from their big players (which has not always been the case), including from Alexander Isak, even if Howe’s verdict was that “this was not his finest game”. Howe offered mitigation — Isak was “not feeling 100 per cent in his groin and his movement”, which is why he was withdrawn after 66 minutes — yet the Sweden striker still provided the first half’s two moments of genuine quality.

The first displayed flawed genius. Having embarrassed Pinnock, then twice sat Nathan Collins on his backside, Isak dinked an-almost-perfect pass to his left for Harvey Barnes to tap into an empty net, rather than shoot. But Barnes was offside and the winger knew it. “Why didn’t you finish?” was Barnes’ immediate response.

Less than two minutes later, Isak delivered his usual riposte. Jacob Murphy supplied the customary assist and Isak’s studs-up volley put Newcastle ahead on the stroke of half-time. That marked Isak’s 20th top-flight goal of the season, making him the first Newcastle player to score 20 times in consecutive Premier League campaigns.

“You’re defined by your ability to score goals in this league,” Howe said. “He’s done that unbelievably well since he’s been here.”

In this sense, victory was business as usual for Newcastle. In another, nothing will ever be the same. “Football moves on very quickly,” Howe said. “You can’t take a breather for a second. So I was really hoping the players would be professional, put Wembley behind them and move forward and work. We did.”

Guess what: Newcastle won.

(Top photo: Alex Dodd/Getty Images)

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