Dan Burn has some vivid memories of his last trip to Wembley with Newcastle United.
Aged seven, he was carried down Wembley Way on his dad David’s shoulders, was kissed by a random woman when Rob Lee scored…. and says there was a river of urine flowing down the terrace onto his new trainers! The Newcastle defender says the club is “dreaming” of another visit after he scored his first goal for his hometown club, as they charged into the semi-final of the Carabao Cup.
Burn was at the Wembley FA Cup semi final on April 9, 2000 - a 2-1 defeat by Chelsea - with his family, before starting his remarkable journey to being a St James’ Park hero, and rock solid member of Eddie Howe’s defence. He’s gone from sixth form in Cramlington at 18, a job collecting shopping trolleys at Asda, to Darlington, Fulham, Wigan and Brighton.
Now he is part of Howe’s revival of the Geordies, and said: “If we’re at this stage you’ve got to have winning it as your goal. We’ll be disappointed if we don’t at least get to the final. I remember Wembley Way and how disgusting the old Wembley was! I had my brand new trainers on and there was just wee coming down the stairs.
“I remember we scored and a lady in front of us kissed me. I remember that. I don’t remember the disappointment, not at that age. That was to come!”
Reminded Newcastle’s have not won a domestic trophy since 1955, Burn added: “The longer it goes on, the more you think it’s never going to happen but I’m sure it will. I’m hoping this season, but if not it definitely will happen.
“Growing up I went through a good bit of our history. There were the Champions League games, they probably made me fall in love with Newcastle United.”
Reflecting on his goal that helped the Toon into the semi-final ranks in his career, Burn said: “I think that’s top like. I would say definitely. To score at the Gallowgate in the quarter-final of the Cup for Newcastle is what I dreamt of when I was a kid. It hasn’t really sunk in.
“Since I joined last January (into a relegation fight) it’s been a surreal sort of 12 months and couldn’t have got any better.
“My family are buzzing. My dad has the love back for Newcastle, which he probably lost for a long time watching me play wherever I was. It’s a good place to be at the moment.”
Burn, 30, says far from feeling pressure, Howe’s squad are “excited” and switched on for big challenges. Pressure and expectation will come, but for now there’s a wide-eyed freshness about their adventure.
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He added: “We are in a position we probably didn’t see ourselves in at the start of the season so if anything we are probably overachieving. It’s not the pressure that City and Liverpool have, where they are expected to be up there and do it.
“I think that will come at some point just with the way the club is going with the ownership and the manager and the players we are bringing in. At the moment it is something we are enjoying and we just want to attack every team.”
For a decade the cups have not been Newcastle’s priority - it was club policy to concentrate on survival in the Premier League.
Burn watched that unfold elsewhere, saying: “It was disappointing watching from outside the club going out of the Cup every year. After a while you just accepted it.
“Since this manager has come in, that's not enough anymore. We want to have a go in all the Cups now – to make a semi-final, especially off the back of last season, means so much.
“You can dream of a final. We take one game at a time – it doesn’t make a difference who we play because if we want to win it we have to beat the best teams – but it’s an amazing achievement. We can’t get distracted with it, we have a lot of important games in the league and want to stay up there as well.
“Even though we’ve not won a trophy for that many years. It shows what kind of club and fanbase we are. We feel we’ve got a real connection with the fans now and there probably wasn’t that for a lot of years. We want to keep building it.”
