Newcastle United fans have adopted Doris Day’s “Que Sera, Sera” to frame their trip to Wembley and the Carabao Cup final, with the song taking on a whole new sound and meaning.
Where trips to London were once warned of, now the Magpies’ faithful, littering the steadily depopulating Goodison Park on Thursday night, whimsically proclaimed to their Merseyside foes that they would not be home “for tea” as they were indeed now destined for Italy. Sounds a little more cultured than North West London, doesn’t it?
And after yet another goal-laden show on the blue half of Liverpool, it’s Champions League football that is undoubtedly on the agenda for Eddie Howe’s clinical Mags. Their fans, downtrodden for so long under the tutelage of skinflint former owner Mike Ashley, are not shy in telling everyone that, too — and why should they be? It’s been 19 years since the Champions League theme tune blasted out at St. James’ Park. Time flies when you’re having fun — and the next four months will pass in the blink of an eye for a continental-starved fanbase, as well as a newly ambitious club, management and team, keen to strut their black and white swagger across the four corners of Europe’s premier competition.
“It was always going to be a really difficult game for us. I thought we handled the occasion really well,” said head coach Howe.
“The first goal was going to be crucial. I thought the first 45 minutes were a bit bitty and transitional for both teams, but second-half, I think you saw us at our best. We were really clinical in front of the goal.
“I think confidence was there; it was evident in that second half. Maybe the edge to the game had gone, but you’ve got to earn the right to get to that point because Everton put us under pressure with a lot of long balls and crosses into our box, but I thought we defended our goal really well. The first goal was probably our best move, and it came at a good time for us.
“In any game, you have to do the basics right. I thought we had to be perfect tonight because Everton would take advantage if we weren’t. Mentally, we had to be really good. I thought we learned from the game here last year, which was very similar in terms of timing and conditions. Really positive night for us.”
Four goals on one night, following on from six on Sunday, and these could easily have been seven, eight or nine had Newcastle taken their many and varied chances.
Everything Howe seems to touch, at the moment, turns to gold.
He took two-goal Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak out — a real luxury of a side playing as fluently as the Magpies at present — and brought in Callum Wilson, who only went and added another two to his tally this season, which, at 13 goals, is his best since signing three years back.
As well as Wilson, Joelinton has recorded his best goalscoring return at Newcastle, albeit from a much deeper position, and netted his eighth goal, a defining second on the night, before some Isak magic laid a fourth on for fellow substitute Murphy.
A bizarre Dwight McNeil curler swirled past Nick Pope to reduce the arrears before VAR ruled out what looked like a goal-of-the-season contender from Fabian Schar, which would have proven not only the icing on the cake but the cherry and sprinkles, too. All of this wearing the lesser spotted “Saudi shirt,” the first win the club has recorded in their recently adopted white and green garb.
Howe added: “I’m very proud to be the manager of the group. They’re individually incredible personalities, and I think that’s reflected in the team you’re seeing at the moment. They’re in a good place, but we know nothing is taken for granted from our perspective.
“It puts us in a much stronger position. We knew the difficulty of the previous two games. Tottenham and Everton are two tough games at any stage of the season, so to get six points is a great return. We have another game this week, which is equally as difficult in a slightly different way. Quick turnaround, we need to rest and go again.
“For us, it’s onto the next game. We want to get as many points as possible and see where we are at the end of the season.”
Eight points clear of fifth-placed Aston Villa, and another one back to Liverpool in sixth. Newcastle United have never positioned themselves so far in the top flight’s top four this season.
Howe urged fans and journalists to bin their calculators and stop worrying about point gaps. He only has eyes for the next game. It’s tough for everyone else to summon that “elite” mindset. They’re all getting a little carried away — and so they should.
This season, these feelings, have been a long, long time in the making. They don’t come cheap. Tears have been shed aplenty in the two decades since the likes of Barcelona graced United’s little cathedral on the hill.
Champions League is back in touching distance — and it’s exactly what Howe’s Newcastle, who have been an energetic, marauding breath of fresh air in the top flight this season, deserve.
Days gone by delivered games against the Rotherhams and Burton Albions of this world, but now, finally, dreams of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, or AC Milan and Ajax, seem set to turn into reality.
