How bad is Newcastle’s trophy drought according to the numbers? (Very bad)

Newcastle United play in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, hoping to end a trophy drought that has lasted almost 56 years.

The most recent piece of major silverware the north-east club won was the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the predecessor of the UEFA Cup/Europa League). That long wait is why it feels like there is so much at stake when they face Liverpool — who have won 38 major trophies in that time — at Wembley Stadium.

Here, The Athletic digs into the numbers and moments behind this barren run, and our Newcastle correspondent George Caulkin offers his thoughts on the wait to celebrate success and how he is feeling ahead of the club’s date with destiny.

Newcastle’s long, long, lonnnnggg wait

First, let’s classify what a major trophy means.

The accepted definition in English football is: winning the top flight, the FA Cup, League  Cup (currently sponsored by Carabao), European Cup/Champions League, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/Europa League, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup (now defunct) or the UEFA Conference League.

Now, the numbers.

It was June 11, 1969 when Newcastle won their last major trophy, defeating Hungarian side Ujpest in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final over two legs. Humans walking on the Moon for the first time was still more than a month away and Newcastle’s oldest player in the final (Jim Scott) was born in 1940.

Since that second leg in Budapest, where a 3-2 Newcastle win secured a 6-2 victory on aggregate, the club have played 2,758 competitive matches — the equivalent of around 173 days of continuous football — all without a major trophy. Goalkeeper Shay Given, who was at Newcastle from 1997 to 2009, has played in the highest number of these games with 463.

They have scored 3,934 goals in this period (1.43 per game), with Alan Shearer — who was born the year after Newcastle beat Ujpest — scoring more of them than anyone else (206).

Newcastle have come close to securing silverware since that night in the Hungarian capital, which is closer in time to the outbreak of the First World War than it is to the present day. They have lost five major finals and come second in the top flight twice since 1969, registering a total of seven second-placed finishes in major competitions.

Here are the five major finals Newcastle have lost in this period.

And here are the club’s second-placed finishes in the top division of English football over that time.

Four of these seven instances came in consecutive seasons (1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99).

Thirty ‘English’ clubs (the total includes Swansea City, a Welsh side who play in the English League system) have lifted a major trophy, by the definition listed above, since Newcastle’s triumph in 1969.

Fourteen of these teams play in the Premier League right now, meaning just five clubs in England’s 2024-25 top flight are on a longer run without winning a trophy than Newcastle: Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Fulham. None of these teams have ever won major silverware (though all of them except Brentford are in the quarter-finals of this season’s FA Cup).

Newcastle’s two second-placed finishes since 1969 are the joint most by any club not to have won the league in this period.

Here are the six sides to have come second in the English top division in this period and not been crowned champions.

The most goals Newcastle have scored in a top-flight season since 1969 is the 85 of 2023-24. Despite that total, head coach Eddie Howe’s team finished seventh in the Premier League. This is the highest number of goals a team has scored in a season and not finished in the top three during Newcastle’s 56-year trophy drought. West Bromwich Albion, who scored 91 goals and came sixth in 1965-66, were the previous team to do it (and that was in a 42-game league season).

Newcastle have been managed by 31 different men in this time (including caretaker spells), with Joe Harvey, who was in charge when they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969 and continued in the role until 1975, the first.

Three Newcastle players have finished as the leading goalscorer in a top-tier season in England during the trophy drought: Malcolm Macdonald in 1974-75 (21 goals), Andy Cole in 1993-94 (34) and Shearer in 1996-97 (25). Cole’s total is the most goals any player has scored in an English top-flight campaign in this period when not playing for the team who won the league (Newcastle came third).

Here are the club’s three biggest wins in all competitions since the summer of 1969, with all of them coming in the month of September. The victories over Sheffield United and Morecambe were both away from home.

Eight different Newcastle players scored in that thrashing of Sheffield United in 2023 — the only time since 1969 an away team have had this many scorers in an English top-flight game. It was also the first 8-0 away win in the country’s top division since West Brom did the same to Wolverhampton Wanderers in December 1893.

As for Newcastle’s last major domestic (ie, non-European) trophy, that came almost 70 years ago when they won the 1954-55 FA Cup. They have won the second tier title three times since 1969 (1992-93, 2009-10 and 2016-17) but that, of course, is not considered major silverware.

What our club correspondent says

George Caulkin: Two years ago, when Newcastle reached the same stage of the Carabao Cup, they won the weekend but lost the match. After a generation without a final of any sort, after the love-sapping Mike Ashley era when it was stated publicly that cups were not “a priority” for Newcastle, after the rush and push of the takeover, supporters — the whole club — needed a blowout moment.

Fans gathered in Trafalgar Square and marvelled at their own recovery. Having given up on seeing their team compete for major honours, friends and families laughed and wept, celebrating this transformation. They drank central London dry (and then tidied up afterwards).

By the time the game at Wembley came around on the Sunday afternoon, hangovers were kicking in. In the stands, Newcastle’s supporters had little left to give and, on the pitch, Howe’s brilliant team looked drained by the magnitude of the occasion.

Bruno Guimaraes after Newcastle lost the Carabao Cup final two years ago (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

That long wait for a meaningful trophy was too big a bridge to cross and they lost 2-0 to Manchester United, a familiar nemesis. It is this experience — both beautiful and disappointing — which guides Newcastle’s approach now.

Nobody who sits in the Newcastle dugout or pulls on the black-and-white shirt is unaware of the club’s history of failure, glorious or otherwise, and the fierce yearning to change it. Winning something — winning anything — means entering legend, but the pressure that brings isn’t particularly helpful.

The date Newcastle are focusing on now is not 1969 or 1955, but 2023, and Howe’s messaging around this cup run has been to learn those lessons, to drain emotion and difference from the build-up. Having played in last season’s Champions League and also reached the quarter-finals of both domestic cups, they stand on more familiar ground.

Newcastle captain Jimmy Scoular lifting the FA Cup in 1955 (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The success of this has been mixed. Form has not been an ally in the month since their excellent, two-legged semi-final victory against Arsenal, while their preparations have been hit hard by forward Anthony Gordon’s suspension and the loss of defenders Lewis Hall and Sven Botman to injury.

In this context, it is little wonder that Howe described Monday’s ugly, narrow 1-0 Premier League away win against West Ham United as one of Newcastle’s best this season. They scrapped at the London Stadium and they found a way.

Misfortune has brought clarity to this team. They have aspirations to win everything but are not there yet — and if they are to have a hope of beating Premier League champions-elect Liverpool without some of their better players, they must be at 100 per cent, 100 per cent of the time on Sunday. They must scrap and find a way.

This theme of confronting adversity is one which Howe has drawn from regularly both at Newcastle and his previous employers Bournemouth. It suits the team and the club.

Whatever happens, save the tears for afterwards and let the hangovers kick in on Monday morning.

(Top photo: Newcastle captain Bobby Moncur with the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup; Peter Robinson/EMPICS via Getty Images)