One year on: Newcastle United's Carabao Cup triumph | OneFootball

A year has passed but it still feels like yesterday.

Fixtures can flash by in the blink of an eye with seasons almost merging together. New stories form before the old ones have even finished.

But for everyone connected with Newcastle United, Sunday, 16th March is a date which will resonate with a generation of Magpies supporters - the day a club who waited decades for a piece of major silverware finally tasted success after beating Liverpool in the 2025 Carabao Cup final.

For head coach Eddie Howe, the memories didn't begin from the final itself but their venture throughout the competition after beating five Premier League sides, culminating in a deserved triumph in the capital which still brings a sense of pride.

He told newcastleunited.com: "I think back to moments and memories of it all, not just the cup final but the build up and the early rounds.

"I always look back with real positivity in every moment, reflecting on so many highlights and memories that I'd love to look back on for the rest of my life. When you're able to see a video or a photo, it brings it back even more.

"The build-up is important but what happens on the pitch is the most important thing and how the players perform and execute what they need to do. "When you look at the individual performances on the day, every player to a man executed one of their best of the season and that's why we won."

Facing a Liverpool side targeting a third Carabao Cup crown in their last four seasons, Newcastle overcame their demons of the 2023 final, a 2-0 defeat against Manchester United, to produce a performance defied by discipline, bravery and belief and the team's approach, according to Howe, made the victory even more rewarding.

"It's one of the most satisfying feelings because winning is one thing but how you win is another," Howe added. "We achieved our objective but the way we played, the football we played, was outstanding and the players deserve all the credit."

For Kieran Trippier, the Magpies' first signing of the post-takeover era, the path to glory included learning from past disappointments.

The former England international, who joined Newcastle from Atlético Madrid in January 2022, was one of five players to start in both cup finals for Howe's men and believed the tough memories two years prior shaped their approach to beat Liverpool, outside of St. James' Park, for the first time since November 1995.

"There was a lot of things going on behind the scenes that you thought we shouldn't have done," Trippier explained. "The club hadn't been in a final for so long and you can knit-pick at things but then fast forward to beating Liverpool, we were prepared.

"One, for the game itself. A lot of players hadn't played in a final but there were many things we learnt from the Man United game going into Liverpool which we did much better.

"The way we played, man for man, playing against a top side in Liverpool was unbelievable.

"It was a fully deserved victory and everything went perfectly. We were all relaxed in the build-up, even though there was a lot of noise outside. Internally, we were focussed and calm and had benefited a lot from the previous cup final."

Cup finals are often determined by iconic moments as players etch their names name into club folklore.

Therefore, it could not have proved more fitting that Newcastle's hero was one of their own as Dan Burn, a Magpies fan released from his boyhood club's Academy as an 11-year-old, opened the scoring with a clinical header from Trippier's corner on the stroke of half-time.

The Geordie defender, who had received his first England call-up two days prior to the cup final, said: "We hadn't scored in that first cup final [against Man United] and the fans had been so amazing that we wanted to give them something. It was a sense of relief and elation mixed into one.

"There have been so many people that have come up to me since and said they were crying when I scored or when we won," Burn recalled. "There's also people who never got to see us score in a final and some had passed away or shortly after the cup final.

"They're all bits you don't take into account but you realise the effect it had. I was so adamant I wanted to have an impact on the game and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

"Tripps' ball was perfect and the header was perfect."

Causing a threat from a number of first half corners, Newcastle sensed an opportunity before netting the club's first goal at Wembley for almost a quarter of a century after Rob Lee's FA Cup semi-final equaliser against eventual winners Chelsea.

"It was a set-play routine that we work on every single day," Trippier said. "There was about three or four corners before the goal where we believed we could score from one of them.

"We knew our roles and, looking back after it, Burnie had to be the man to score that goal. A Geordie boy and for him to score for his boyhood club in a cup final is a dream.

"To score before half-time, it can go either way in the second half as crazy as that sounds. We were calm in the dressing room and nobody was overexcited because the game was far from over."

Howe added: "Dan Burn's goal was one of surprise because he headed it from so far out. I wasn't sure he could score from there so to see the net bulge when it happened was a great feeling but I think we were well aware that was just the start of the work."

Newcastle's second goal brought another surge of belief - but not relief.

"The second goal was, of course, another great feeling but there's still too long in the game to think that you've won," Howe added.

"The only time we knew we'd won was when the whistle went - I've been in the game for too long to take anything for granted."

The players echoed their manager's thoughts.

"To score before half-time, it can go either way in the second half as crazy as that sounds," Trippier added.

"We felt relaxed, the manager said his piece, and us players knew Liverpool would come out firing which they did. We had to match it, go to the end and knew we had one hand on the trophy."

As Federico Chiesa halved Liverpool's deficit in the sixth minute of stoppage-time, ghosts of footballing past came flooding back to Newcastle supporters old and new.

There were harrowing memories of Stan Collymore's last-gasp winner in the Magpies' 4-3 defeat at Anfield during the 1995/96 season, leaving former manager Kevin Keegan famously slumped in his seat as their hopes of a maiden Premier League title were, ultimately, distinguished at the hands of Manchester United.

There were also brutal blows in recent campaigns, with Darwin Núñez's stoppage-time winner sealing a 2-1 comeback win for the ten-man Reds at St. James' Park while Fábio Carvalho's 98th minute strike continued United's lengthy winless run on the red half of Merseyside.

"When you're 2-0 up, it's a dangerous scoreline," Trippier said. "They score and were throwing everything at it. You saw all the attacking players they had on and when the referee gave it onside, it was down to people like myself, Burnie and the leaders of the group to try and manage you."

The final minutes felt like hours. The final seconds felt like minutes.

"I'm a big believer that you create your own luck by doing the right things," Burn said. "I've been taught that since I was a kid that if you do the right things, not always the easy ones, then good things will happen.

"I've tried to do that and make us do that as a team. When we're two-nil up, you start to think 'we're going to do this here'.

"Even with their goal, we were disappointed, because it could've been handball a bit earlier, but we had learnt lessons in how to see games out even if it might not have felt like it in the moment."

Everyone defended.

United as one.

And then the full-time whistle arrived and a moment that Howe, the players and an army of United supporters had longingly craved.

"It's a bit of a blur in that moment because everyone is so happy," the Magpies head coach said. "I always like to do the right thing in winning or losing and speak to the opposition first.

"I was more looking at the players and, of course, the supporters in sharing that emotion with them. It's an incredible moment but it goes by so quickly and you don't really have time to make the clock stop which is what you want to do to savour it properly."

Burn had fantasised the scenario for a lifetime but after realising his lifelong dream had been achieved, the Blyth-raised defender was left bewildered amongst the glorious chaos.

"It is just a blur," he revealed. "You build something up in your head so much that when it comes to it, you don't know how to feel.

"The joy for me was knowing all the work that went in to get us to that point and, when it happened, it was an absolute shock."

In 1984, Howe watched his beloved Everton lift the FA Cup as a teenager and recalls climbing the famous Wembley steps into the Royal Box, emulating his heroes within Howard Kendall's squad.

The post-match celebrations gave the Magpies boss an opportunity to remember those who played a pivotal role in winning his first major trophy of his managerial career, including his late mother Anne who sadly passed away in 2012.

"The things I'd seen as a child when you're watching teams lift the FA Cup and various other cups," he explained. "The walking up and down the steps is a historic thing. All of it is amazing and whets your appetite because you want to do it again.

"It's all very personal to you. You're in a very high emotional state anyway around a game whether you're winning or losing but it's a very special moment with a lot of other people's emotions mixed in.

"Naturally, you think of people that have helped you to get to where you are. I'm grateful for everyone who has tried to elevate me in any way possible; family, friends and mentors so I feel very fortunate and it was nice to think of them in that time."

With the trophy ready to be hoisted into the air in front of a jubilant 31,939 Newcastle fans stood in the West End of the stadium, a poignant act from Trippier and captain Bruno Guimarães was carried out.

Jamaal Lascelles, who had served admirably as Magpies skipper despite the club dropping into the Championship nine years prior, was prompted by the pair to lift the trophy aloft as a trio, acknowledging his role in the club's journey from relegation contenders to cup winners within the space of four years.

Trippier explained: "I always said, when I walked through the door, that Jamaal was the captain even if he was playing or not. He's my captain.

"In that moment, he was stood at the other end. You've got to recognise what he did for the club when they were in the Championship and through the dark times.

"People like that are the core of a club so I felt it was important that he lifted that trophy with us. He didn't really want to because he was injured but it was important that he recognised that too.

"I said to Bruno that when we lift the trophy, we do it with Jam. I'm that type of player that, whether you're playing or not, you're part of our group and he was a big vocal point in our dressing room. He deserved a lot of respect for what he did for this football club."

If Wembley was an emotional ocean of black and white, what followed in Newcastle proved something else entirely as the squad paraded the Carabao Cup through the city centre in front of an estimated 300,000 spectators.

The magnitude of the achievement, whilst embarking from St. James' Park to the Town Moor, finally hit home for Burn.

"You didn't really see many faces in the crowd [at Wembley]," he recalled. "It was just a sea of black and white but it wasn't until the parade through Newcastle where you could see everyone.

"There was so many times where I had to stop myself from crying as I could see people crying on the street. As a club and city, you don't realise how much it means to people.

"Those are the things you don't picture - a trophy parade or being on the Town Moor in front of thousands of people, with Ant and Dec hosting. It was a real pinch-me moment.

"I wish I could go back to that day to live it again apart from it being freezing! I suppose that's why a lot of clubs don't have trophy parades in March but it was so special."

Despite winning the La Liga title in 2020/21, Trippier had experienced his own near-misses in an illustrious playing career.

After losing the 2019 Champions League final with Tottenham Hotspur as well as two crushing final defeats at Wembley in the EURO 2020 final with England and the 2023 Carabao Cup final with Newcastle, the right-back eventually got his hands on an elusive cup winners' medal at senior level.

"I never thought the club would be in the position that we're in today," he explained. "The club were in a tough position but we've smashed through so many barriers.  "Everybody has played their part, even if they're no longer here, in the history they've created for the club. The manager deserves huge credit because what he's done in coaching players and for the club, in general, is nothing short of remarkable. "I had an experience with him at Burnley and to see how he's transitioned as a person and a manager is light and day. When he asked me to come, I didn't have to think twice. "You see the two cup finals we've reached, qualifying for the Champions League twice and playing Barcelona in the knockout rounds. We've created lots of history but we want more."

For decades, Newcastle United supporters carried the weight of waiting.

After Doug Livingstone's 1955 FA Cup winning side, spearheaded by the likes of Jackie Milburn and Len White, the Magpies had suffered five consecutive domestic cup finals but, now, that weight is finally gone.

Burn said: "A lot of people spoke about how they think we made it bigger than it was but, until you've been a Newcastle fan or played for the club, you won't realise how infatuated people were for winning a cup.

"There was a lot of pressure on all the teams that came before us right up to us winning. Now you've broken that seal, it does not feel like a burden anymore and you can do it again."