To understand the size of the challenge Eddie Howe faces to win a trophy at Newcastle United it is worth noting that the club have tried and failed to win a domestic cup competition 133 times since they last lifted the FA Cup, back in 1955.

The most infamous trophy drought in English football is a burden that has weighed heavily on Newcastle managers for decades. It has broken some of the biggest names in the game.

Howe has come as close as anyone to ending it, losing the Carabao Cup final to Manchester United in 2023, a defeat that he still describes as the most painful of his three-year reign at St James’ Park.

Others have suffered equally inglorious near misses. Kevin Keegan finished second in the Premier League in 1996, so too did Sir Kenny Dalglish. He also lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal in 1998.

Ruud Gullit did the same, this time to Manchester United, a year later. Joe Harvey lost a League Cup final in 1974, five years after winning the club’s last major piece of silverware, the Fairs Cup in 1969.

It is the quest to end the long wait for silverware that made the Newcastle job so appealing to Howe. If Newcastle can beat Brentford, at home, in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, he will be the first manager since Sir Bobby Robson to reach two semi-finals and the first since Stan Seymour, in the 1950s, to do it in two domestic competitions.

“I know how long it is in years,” Howe replied when the 133 failed attempts were put to him. “But that puts it in a slightly different way and a different context.

“The willingness has been there from previous teams, but we want to be the team that gets over the line and achieves something special. I’ve been very open since I got here, that I have a burning desire to win a trophy. That will never change.

“But, as you go through the competition, these rounds are very difficult. Nothing will be taken for granted [against Brentford] from our side, but we know if we can hit the correct levels of performance as we did against Leicester, we are a match for anyone in the division.

“I don’t tend to waste time looking back at what we have done historically. It’s always about the future and trying to do the best we can in the here and now. But the responsibility of trying to achieve and win competitions, and to elevate the club to where it should be, in my opinion, is a responsibility we take very seriously at all times.”

‘We’d love to reward supporters’

With the Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules stifling Newcastle’s growth since the takeover led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, combined with the new rules brought in regarding Associated Party Sponsorship deals which have prevented their owners pumping money into the club, winning a league title looks a long way off.

That makes the focus on the cups, as well as qualifying for Europe, which will bring another route to silverware, even sharper for Howe.

“We’ve discussed it within team meetings and various individual talks,” Howe added. “We do encourage the players to stand up and talk individually to the group. That’s become very apparent – there’s the same will within all of them to win a trophy here.

“They’ve seen the support we get week in, week out, wherever we travel in the world the supporters are with us. I’m speaking on behalf of the players in saying we’d love to reward that support with a trophy. It’s within everyone at Newcastle now.”

The supporters are all too aware of the club’s history of failure. Newcastle, even at the height of their success, were a potent cup team and there is something special about these nights, under the lights, at St James’ Park that Howe has harnessed skilfully in the past.

“There’s an element of excitement [before a cup game at Newcastle] that’s slightly different to a league game,” he said.

“You know it’s a one-off and that you’re in or out at the end of the game. That naturally brings a different feeling to the Premier League.

“The Premier League is all encompassing. It’s there, you can’t escape it, but of course the league table is forming and shaping with every game.

“There’s nothing like cup football. The atmosphere I hope tomorrow will be red hot. We have to get our supporters in the game for sure.”

There will be a sell-out at St James’ Park on Wednesday night and not one of them will tolerate the idea that the League Cup does not matter.