jumpin' and bumpin' and movin' all around

Almost a quarter of a century after Alan Shearer struck twice to send Newcastle to Wembley, another local lad repeated the feat on Tuesday night to seal an overdue cup return to the national stadium for the black and whites.

Wor Al bagged his brace at a neutral Old Trafford in 1999, but the ice hockey player's son from North Shields had the distinction of doing it on home turf in 2023, to the delight of almost 50,000 Geordies infected with cup fever.

Fittingly, that Toon faction included the former number 9, who took time out from twirling a black and white scarf dating back to his own testimonial to offer some scoring advice to our current number 36 - which certainly did the trick.

There have been some epic nights on this ground since the bloke who got Bournemouth relegated arrived in the North East, but this one eventually surpassed them - albeit after some scenes of mild peril that seemed to underline that winning ties of this stature doesn't come easy. At least to us. 

In classic Magpies style, fans were put through the wringer after Lobby's two swift strikes gave his side a commanding three goal advantage in the tie - and the resurgent midfielder came mighty close to bagging another between his eighth and 21st minute efforts after another flowing forward move.

However that lead was reduced by one within eight minutes, Che Adams bagging an effort from distance to remind those present that Nick Pope is actually human rather than a supernatural goalkeeping deity. 

There were further chances for a home side unchanged for the fifth successive game, but they were in short supply after the break, giving Southampton renewed hope of forcing extra time and potentially, penalties.

Pope played his part in soothing the disquiet when denying SJP old boy Adam Armstrong on 72 minutes. A VAR-inspired straight red card ten minutes later though sent Bruno Guimaraes to the dressing room, after leaving his mark on substitute Samuel Edozie's ankle.

James Ward-Prowse took the resultant free kick from just outside the box, but the defensive wall did its job: "tell me ma" chants returning following a collective exhalation of relief.

That seemed to be it, but nerves jangled again during a frenetic finale that saw two home substitutes replaced; Alexander Isak with suspected concussion after taking the full force of that free kick and Elliot Anderson for Jacob Murphy as United sought to run the clock down - Murphy being the farthest away from the bench at that moment and joining Miggy in failing to exit via the closest touchline, to the evident frustration of the visiting staff.

An indicated seven minutes of added time extended to 11 before the sound of Paul Tierney's whistle was drowned out by a deafening roar of relief that gave way to a earwax-dislodging PA rendition of Doris Day's "Que sera, sera."

Players and staff took the applause of an ecstatic home support; thoughts of Bruno's suspension, Isak's possible absence, concerns over central midfield and everything else on hold. The moment was simply to be savoured - we've waited bloody long enough for it all to come around again.

In our minds, tonight is destined to be remembered for the goals, the noise, the colour - and not much else. After a sensational opening spell that proved pivotal to our ultimate success, much of what followed was uncomfortable.

That's no different from previous games of this stature; recollections of 90 (and 120 minutes) of the 1998 and 1999 Old Trafford triumphs distilled down to pleasurable seconds of Wor Al and the big stand bouncing up and down to an alarming extent.

This could have been the night when we reverted to type and gave the sort of non-performance served up on too many occasions, be it promotion playoff failure or European capitulations.

Not for this squad or manager though; instead they're making history and rewarding those who stuck by their club through sour times, not to mention a whole new generation of followers blissfully unaware of what preceded them.

We started this waffle by harking back to 1999 and a semi-final success that by implication lessened the successive body blows of Wembley 2000, Marseille 2004 and Cardiff 2005. 

An arch may have replaced the twin towers, but the mix of nervousness, anticipation and excitement ahead of the final is unchanged, as is the demand for tickets and the uncertainty of their distribution.

With regard to that, there's sympathy for those at the club tasked with formulating a plan, given that the last time they were in that position, arrangements were made with the football authorities via fax....

We couldn't conclude without returning to SJP five years ago tonight, for the visit of a Burnley side featuring Nick Pope. The Wor Flags display then referenced this quote from Kevin Keegan:

Making it to a final again is welcome, but for that "everything you wanted it to be" line to come true really requires us to win more than praise this time round.

Trophy parades on Barrack Road may be commonplace one day given our financial backing, but the act of finally ending that barren sequence and moving on from being the "nearly" club fixates and consumes us. And we're not alone.

Biffa