Newcastle are on their way to Wembley, snubbed Muppet or not
WEMBLEY HO’WAY
When Football Daily heard that Newcastle United had invited a celebrity saxophonist to play their iconic walkout music before Wednesday night’s Carling Cup semi-final second leg against Arsenal, it was beside itself elves with excitement. Sadly, our favourite blue-haired horn-tooter, Zoot from The Muppet Show, failed to materialise and it was left for local muso Johnny “Blue Hat” Davis to step into the breach and play Going Home instead. A lifelong Toon fan, he provided more than adequate cover for the terminally stoned and famously unreliable sax-man from Electric Mayhem, who wasn’t alone in failing to turn up at St James’ Park. For all Gabriel Martinelli’s pre-match talk about Arsenal looking to “score three, four, five” in order to overturn their two-goal first leg deficit against Newcastle, the Gunners failed to land anything resembling a glove on their hosts, with Mikel Arteta’s players possibly still basking in the afterglow of the open-topped bus parade that followed their emphatic weekend win over Manchester City.
While Arsenal supporters can console themselves with the fact that they have bigger fish to fry this season, the fact that Eddie Howe and Newcastle appear to well and truly have their team’s number ought to be a source of concern. The strikerless Gunners have fired blanks in three consecutive defeats at the hands of Newcastle already this season and still have to face them again in the penultimate match of a league they still entertain hopes of snatching from under Liverpool’s nose. “We need to swallow this one,” sighed Arteta, who was trolled throughout the game by Newcastle fans. “It’s a tough one. We had a lot of expectations. We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result we brought from London but there’s nothing we can do right now. Now we have to look forward.”
Having earned their latest trip to Wembley the hard way, with four of their five victories in the competition coming against top-flight sides, Newcastle fans can now book their tickets for a big day out in London, with their giddy excitement only slightly tempered by the potential ignominy of losing a Wembley final to fellow trophy-dodgers Spurs. “We had a gameplan we thought would work,” roared Anthony Gordon, before preaching a need for humility that some cynics have interpreted as a b@nterific dig. “Everyone knows we press. It is important for us to stay humble now. It will be a big occasion but it’s so far away.” Having sat out the pre-match niceties to make way for Johnny Blue Hat, if Newcastle’s stadium DJ didn’t round off the evening with a rendition of Kendrick Lamar’s Fragile, then he certainly missed a trick.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The only contact I’ve had was an email saying they’d accepted my resignation. I contacted the club, who said the owners had told him I’d resigned. But I never did. I’ve not heard from them since. I can’t get a job and I’ve got no money. Part of me wishes I said yes, and done the extra work for no extra money. It’s turning into a nightmare” – Crawley Town’s former kitman Pete Reynolds accuses the club of breaking the Modern Slavery Act in a claim for unfair dismissal and age discrimination that will be heard at an employment tribunal.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Tottenham’s recent signing of Mathys Tel might well be a good omen since the former Spurs legend and England manager was an FA Cup winner in both 1967 (as player) and 1991 (as manager). Of course, only time will, ahem, tell” – Adrian Irving.
While I have sympathy with Jane Beer as regards supporting one team (Tuesday’s Football Daily letters), I feel that if you move across the UK such that your new local club is unlikely to play your previous team, and it’s not exactly near, it is acceptable to at least follow another side. Having lived in Derby for 15 years (County, third from bottom in the Championship), now residing just outside Maidenhead for the last 20 (United, third from bottom in the National League), I’m not sure I can be accused of any sort of glory hunting. Like Peter Harris (Monday’s letters) I just enjoy going to watch live football with some skin in the game, even if we get thrashed with alarming regularity. Nine defeats from a 10 combined games this year, since you ask” – Adrian Bradshaw.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Adrian Bradshaw. Terms and conditions for our competitions – when we have them – can be viewed here.
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