You might have noticed it’s FA Cup final weekend.
Modern-day football fans might find it hard to believe the Cup was once the game’s most coveted trophy.
Long before the Premier League and Champions League became the be-all-and-end-all, the FA Cup was the one players and fans wanted most.
In a complete reversal of the modern trend, as late as the 1950s it wasn’t unusual for clubs to rest players in league games and save them for the all-important Cup.
Way back in the first decade of the last century, Newcastle United boasted the most successful team in the club’s history.
Three league titles won in five years vividly showcases the Magpies’ Edwardian dominance. But it wasn’t until 1910, and United’s first FA Cup win, that the city truly exploded in celebration.
(The team had somewhat surprisingly lost three quick-fire FA Cup finals - in 1905, 1906 and 1909 at the “unlucky” Crystal Palace stadium. The 1910 win over Barnsley came in a replay at Everton’s Goodison Park).
Thousands of cloth-capped fans welcomed the team home to Newcastle Central Station and the sound of singing and cheering filled the Tyneside air.
It would mark the beginning of a long, successful relationship between United and the FA Cup.
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The next win, in 1924, came at the new Wembley Stadium. United, technically speaking, would remain unbeaten there for 50 years.
The Toon would go on to lift the trophy under the Twin Towers in 1932, 1951, 1952 and 1955. But that would be it. Our cover image shows the last Magpies captain, Jimmy Scoular, to celebrate with the famous silverware - 63 years ago, and counting!
There were bitter defeats in 1974 and, more recently, in 1998 and 1999. (United also bombed at Wembley in the 1976 League Cup final).
Another trophy, the Inter-City Fairs Cup - the forerunner of the UEFA Cup and Europa League - and won over two legs in Newcastle and Budapest is infamously United’s last major trophy. Next year marks 50 years.