Football burden

Alan Shearer
Former England striker

Image source, Alan Shearer

I don't even know when I left Wembley after the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. It was this kind of night.

Together with my son and daughter Chloe, we went straight from the stadium to celebrate in the boxing park on Wembley Way and celebrate with the Newcastle players and hundreds of fans.

The champagne – and the beer – flowed for everyone and it was a great evening, the way you just don't want to end. Nobody wanted to go home and for the first time I didn't mind waking up with a hangover the next day.

Everyone was so high, and now I am still of the mere emotion of seeing Newcastle to finally see a large trophy and the following reaction.

You can see from some of the photos that night that I got the winner of the goalkeeper Mark Gillespies in their hands and the team took the trophy home with them, but it is the feeling that the special part of it is because it is something that so many of us have not yet experienced.

Maybe some older people had it in 1969 when Newcastle won the Fairs Cup, but I am 54 years old and everyone who is my age had no such moment.

It was something new and it was brilliant and it is not over yet.