Culture
Inside Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup glory – Shearer’s text, Howe’s banner and tactics, and a half-time slideshow
It is not news that Eddie Howe is meticulous. One step further is probably fair. Eddie Howe is the chief obsessive in a city filled with them.
Holding onto a 1-0 lead in the Carabao Cup final and 45 minutes away from breaking a 56-year trophy-less hoodoo, Howe did not turn to words alone for his half-time team talk. He had faith in his preparation.
He had faith in his slideshow.
As the players trooped in, moments after Dan Burn’s header had put them into the lead, Howe was waiting with information. His presentation contained the physical statistics from Newcastle’s past two months of matches — showing a marked dip at the start of the second half. He implored his players not to do the same at Wembley.
“We have been guilty of protecting leads in the past,” Burn told The Athletic post-match. “We just wanted to not take a backward step and really push forward.”
“Get after them,” Joelinton added. “Don’t change anything.”
They did all that and more. After 53 minutes, Newcastle burst forward down the left and Jacob Murphy’s knock-down fell to Alexander Isak. The Swedish striker had already had a goal ruled out for offside moments earlier. Not this time.
His shot found the corner of the Liverpool goal, and in holding on for a 2-1 win, Howe was catapulted onto Newcastle United’s Mount Rushmore. This is the inside story of the day and the game plan that got them there.
Two years ago, Newcastle smarted with regret after a 2-0 loss to Manchester United. That day was not their brand of football — they were meek, wan, and emotionally empty. Howe has later admitted that, post-match, he was not mentally in a healthy place.
But losing had significance. It brought lessons and resolve. The mantra emanating from Newcastle’s Benton training base was simple, but it resonated. This time, things would be done differently.
On Newcastle’s last trip to Wembley, the day felt long. The squad stayed opposite the stadium, the countdown to kick-off beginning the moment the curtains opened.
This year, Howe imparted the importance of staying elsewhere to the club’s logistical staff — opting for a Hertfordshire hotel, where they could have a gentle morning before travelling to the stadium in the early afternoon.
“This time, we tried to take away as many distractions as we could,” Howe said post-game. “We tried to make it very similar to a Premier League build-up. I think staying at a quieter hotel was really important.”
“Today, just driving into the stadium itself, it all felt so different,” another member of club staff remarked post-game. “It was focused — there wasn’t that emotion.”
Of course, it is impossible to completely escape a city’s feelings and expectations, especially when the club’s all-time leading scorer, Alan Shearer, texts the club captain, Bruno Guimaraes, on the eve of the game. His message was not one spewing emotion, but a clinical instruction: “Bring that trophy back.”
The banner Howe loves (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
That sentiment was echoed by the supporters, who re-displayed a flag from the Arsenal semi-final — “Get into them” — which Howe has privately acknowledged as his favourite banner, marking the core standard he wants his team to set.
But Howe being Howe, he did not send his team out with those words alone. Arne Slot’s Liverpool are a buzzsaw, marching unchallenged towards the Premier League table. Newcastle needed their own weapons.
Newcastle’s coaches identified early in their preparations that they felt Liverpool could be exploited from set pieces. Though their team shape was not finalised until after the West Ham United game on Monday night, their corner routines for the final have been practised for the past two weeks.
Newcastle’s staff feel Burn should score more from corners given his physical advantages and have emphasised the importance of delivering the ball into areas where he is likely to be first to the ball. By peeling off the back, away from the six-yard box, Burn could take advantage of Liverpool’s zonal defending. The header itself is made harder, further away from goal, but it places Burn up against Liverpool’s smaller blockers — in this case, Alexis Mac Allister — rather than centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
Burn towers over Mac Allister to do what he hadn’t been doing in training: score (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
After 45 minutes, their plan came off — Burn powering past Mac Allister to bounce his header home. It was Newcastle’s first goal at Wembley in 25 years.
“If you’d seen us in practice, you’d have thought we had no chance,” Howe told Sky Sports afterwards. “Dan will be the first to admit he hasn’t practised like that, so when he scored, Jason (Tindall) and I turned to each other and couldn’t believe he scored.”
Slot put it even more bluntly — “I have never seen in my life a player from that far away heading a ball with that force into the far corner. Credit to him. Few players can score a goal from that distance with his head.”
Burn’s header that surprised Slot and Howe (Michelle Mercer/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Newcastle had been deliberate in their preparations, with Howe admitting to hiding parts of their repertoire when they played Liverpool less than three weeks ago. This was a sacrifice — they looked passive in a 2-0 defeat — but even if they miss out on Champions League qualification by a point, it will pale against Wembley’s significance.
“We still wanted to win that game,” Howe insisted after Sunday’s win. “We just did it in a different way.”
In some ways, he was helped by necessity. Lewis Hall’s injury, suffered during that defeat, was viewed as a significant blow — it is a position where Newcastle are low on options after Lloyd Kelly’s departure to Juventus in January. But the great coaches are those who adapt when Plan A fails — and Howe found the positives in what he had.
Ordinarily, shuffling a right-back onto their weaker side to face Mohamed Salah, the world’s in-form right-winger, would be a major no-no. In Matt Targett, Howe had a specialist left-back, albeit one who had played barely any football in the past 18 months.
But Newcastle’s coaching staff felt positive about Tino Livramento, who is seen as a better one-on-one defender than Hall due to his pace. Additionally, they emphasised to Livramento that his right-footedness could become an advantage. If Salah cut inside, Livramento would be on his stronger right foot to make a challenge — while, with Burn instructed to double up inside, Livramento could force him wide without fear of being isolated and beaten.
Shifting Livramento also opened up his right-back berth, giving Howe and Tindall the luxury of selecting Kieran Trippier, who possesses the best set-piece delivery in the squad. With ordinary taker Anthony Gordon ruled out through suspension, Trippier had a chance to play regardless of Hall’s injury given the importance Newcastle placed on dead-ball opportunities. In the event, it was the 34-year-old’s cross that assisted Burn’s goal.
Howe’s other major selection question was on the left wing, deciding how to replace Gordon. While Joe Willock offers a huge work rate out of possession and a dangerous carrying ability, Howe decided relatively early in the week that Harvey Barnes was his preferred option.
The match against West Ham on Monday evening had been the winger’s first start in three months and Howe liked what he saw as Barnes assisted the game’s only goal. Fitness-permitting, Newcastle would be unchanged.
In attack, their plan hinged on pressuring Liverpool’s full-backs rather than their elite-level centre-backs. Isak often drifted left, with Barnes instead cutting inside. Makeshift right-back Jarell Quansah was left unsure which to pick up, a job made more difficult by deeper inside runs from Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes, isolating the Liverpool defender.
This made space for Livramento to carry the ball upfield and though he was still on his weaker side, he had extra time to pick out the technically difficult left-footed cross. This created Newcastle’s second goal — Murphy outmuscling Liverpool’s other full-back, Andy Robertson, to nod down for Isak to score.
Just wait for that Isak celebration! 😍⚫️⚪️#EFL | #CarabaoCupFinal pic.twitter.com/PAEBtZ4QtH
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) March 16, 2025
But though these were the frills Newcastle needed to score, it was not the core reason they were able to compete. That fell to Newcastle’s midfield trio — Sandro Tonali, Guimaraes, and Joelinton. To Liverpool, their collective of black and white shirts must have felt like prison bars.
Before kick-off, Tonali was the only player on either side to hand his warm-up jacket back to the kitman perfectly folded. It summed up a player who emerged from the day’s chaos with simple passes to get Newcastle moving forward.
Guimaraes devoted himself to winning midfield duels, often against two or three — by full-time, the only thing he had left to give were tears.
Tonali was at the heart of Newcastle’s performance (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
But Joelinton was the heart of Newcastle’s win — a player whose transformation, whose career, is now synonymous with Howe. He is the head coach’s greatest individual success.
Having suffered a knee injury in early February, missing the semi-final second-leg and the Liverpool game among others, it was not until the FA Cup defeat to Brighton two weeks ago that he proved his fitness.
Though always expected to be fit, there had been lingering concerns over what-ifs all the same. Newcastle’s staff felt their plan would only work if the midfielder was fully healthy. Howe aimed to exploit his midfield’s physical edge — being direct, physical, and aerially dominant was a requirement, not a possibility.
When Joelinton barrelled Quansah off the ball midway through the first half, screaming to the Newcastle fans as he did so, it epitomised Newcastle’s ambition. Football matches are decided by micro-wins adding up to big moments — these were Joelinton’s domain.
Guimaraes completed Shearer’s mission (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
One of these came just one minute into the second half, with Newcastle still a single goal up, and Diogo Jota at the byline and cutting the ball back. But Joelinton had listened to Howe’s slideshow — if he can come back from how his Newcastle career began, he can come back 40 yards in a cup final to block Salah’s goalbound shot.
This was Salah’s only real moment of danger. With Trent Alexander-Arnold out, Liverpool’s main way to build up play — short of hopeful long balls — was beating Newcastle’s initial press and playing through the midfield. They never came close to doing it; Dominik Szoboszlai was marked to the point of extinction by Joelinton, while Howe held his wingers tight to ensure Guimaraes and Tonali had simple reads to spring and win their duels. Salah was reduced to chasing hopeful punts.
By the time Liverpool’s final heave landed, Joelinton was on his knees, pointing to the sky. Guimaraes wept uncontrollably.
In the royal box, Newcastle owner and PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan pounded his phone for 30 minutes after the game, leaving voice notes and sending messages. Newcastle are awaiting Saudi Arabian sign-off for upgrades to both their training base and stadium; shiny metal silverware does help things get done.
If decisions are still to be taken over Newcastle’s long-term future, the short-term was set. The players streamed towards Wembley’s Box Park. Those not on international duty will fly to Dubai on Monday for a warm-weather training camp. Remember, Howe is meticulous.
But as the final whistle blew and Newcastle’s players streamed onto the pitch, Howe stared, wide-eyed, and spun before falling into Tindall’s arms. For the first time on Sunday, he and Newcastle did not know what to do.
(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
EU Parliament unblocks key political hurdle in digital euro talks
Man arrested in plot to firebomb Palestinian activist’s home after undercover op
Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia
PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic | NHL.com
Fielder may resign from Board of Supervisors, possibly over illegal leak
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
EU Parliament unblocks key political hurdle in digital euro talks
Man arrested in plot to firebomb Palestinian activist’s home after undercover op
WATCH: Senate hearing goes silent after Angel Father confronts top Dem over daughter’s death
US diplomat Marco Rubio denounces settler violence, tolls in Hormuz strait
Iran-linked hackers have breached FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal emails | CNN Politics
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Sports7 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
New Mexico5 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Business1 week agoDisney’s new CEO says his focus is on storytelling and creativity
-
Technology6 days agoYouTube job scam text: How to spot it fast
-
Tennessee4 days agoTennessee Police Investigating Alleged Assault Involving ‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson
-
Texas1 week agoHow to buy Houston vs. Texas A&M 2026 March Madness tickets