MAGPIES FOR THE CUP

Newcastle United were very much the "bees knees" Cup team in the post Second World War period, winning the FA Cup in 1955 for the third time in five seasons. They spoilt Stanley Matthews' dream, by beating his team, Blackpool 2-0 in the 1951 Final. Jackie Milburn scoring both goals within 4 minutes of each other and not surprising he had scored in every round. 

In the 1952 Final, the Magpies stole the "silver" from Arsenal with  the Chilean, George Robledo scoring the only goal, giving his brother Ted (SEE LEFT), and United the honour of becoming the first club to win the Cup in consecutive seasons since Blackburn Rovers in 1890 and 1891. Robledo scored six minutes from time with a depleted Arsenal, down to ten men, as Wally Barnes had left the pitch injured after 35 minutes. There were no subs at this time. Winston Churchill, the only Prime Minister to attend the final in history, at the time, presented the cup. He's here with Stanley Rous (FA).

In the following season (1955-6) Newcastle lost to rivals Sunderland 0-2, in the Sixth Round, denying the Magpies a place in the Semi-final. Newcastle had beaten their rivals 6-1 earlier in their league derby.

Newcastle failed to reach the semi-finals again until March 9th 1974. The Magpies had a dramatic victory over Second Division, Nottingham Forest, at St James' Park. Forest had gone 3-1 up until, Terry McDermott and John Tudor squared the score and Bobby Moncur, scored the last minute winner (4-3). But this game was made void, as explained below.

Two days later, on the 11th of March 1974, Newcastle were drawn against Burnley and all seemed well until the FA responded to an appeal from Forest, who claimed that Forest's third goal, a 56th minute penalty, saw Pat Howard sent off for protesting. When the penalty went in, a "fat gentleman" in civvies appeared in the Forest area, waving and shouting; the Observer paper reported this distraction. This set off a riot and Forest's David Serella was punched in the face. The players were ushered from the field for about 10 minutes and when they resumed, Forest "fell apart". To add insult to injury Moncur's winner was offside and the lineman feared a "lynching", so he kept his flag down. (The score was recorded as 4-3 to Newcastle).  Resultant replays were played twice at Goodison, firstly a 0-0, then the prolific Malcolm MacDonald scoring the winner 1-0 in the second replay.

Newcastle got to the final eventually, despite various hurdles en route. In Rd3, they had been "held" 0-0 by non-League Hendon (actually they were a force in amateur football at the time), Newcastle winning the replay 0-4; then in Rd4 by Fourth Division Scunthorpe Utd**. 1-1 and 0-3 away. They settled down and in Rd5 beating West Brom at theirs 0-3, Rd 6 was Forest and in the semi-final they beat Burnley 2-0 at Hillsborough to reach Wembley.

In the Final, David Coleman reported that Newcastle were "undressed" by a rampant Liverpool 3-0 and Kevin Keegan (** note Keegan bought from Scunny). I was at Wembley and I agree.

Liverpool's route to the Final was from Rd 3 Doncaster Rovers 0-2 away after a 0-0 home draw: Rd 4 Carlisle Utd after a home 1-1 draw, winning away 0-2: Rd 5 home to Ipswich T 2-0: Rd 6 Away at Bristol City 0-1: SF: away to Leicester City 0-0: then 3-1.

En route, Keegan scored 2 v Donny, 1 v Ipswich, and 1 v Leicester, 2 v Newcastle.