IF Newcastle United supporters are hoping for some good omens ahead of their side’s FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City this teatime, they will not find many in their club’s previous record at the Etihad Stadium.
Newcastle have played 20 matches at the Etihad, losing 17 and drawing two. Perhaps, though, it will be their one and only victory at the stadium that will provide the inspiration for Eddie Howe and his players to repeat the feat today.
Back in October 2014, Alan Pardew took his Magpies side to Manchester City in the fourth round of the Capital Cup. Then, as now, few gave the visitors a chance.
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City were the reigning champions, and while the League Cup might not have been at the top of manager Manuel Pellegrini’s list of priorities, the hosts still lined up with an extremely strong starting side containing the likes of Bacary Sagna, David Silva, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko.
Newcastle, on the other hand, were ravaged by injury, forcing Pardew to name an extremely youthful line-up. Massadio Haidara started at left-back, the midfield three was the previously untried combination of Ryan Taylor, Mehdi Abeid and Jack Colbank, and in attack, Gabriel Obertan and Rolando Aarons started on either side of central striker Adam Armstrong.
Unsurprisingly, Newcastle were huge outsiders at kick-off, but the home supporters were silenced pretty much from the off when Aarons fired the visitors into a surprise sixth-minute lead with the second senior goal of his career.
Taylor challenged Fernandinho, and when the ball broke free, Aarons seized on it before firing an angled low finish into the bottom corner.
Taylor was making his first appearance for 26 months after recovering from two cruciate ligament injuries, and came close with a free-kick as Newcastle continued to impress.
City were always going to rally though, and after Rob Elliot produced a fine save to deny Stevan Jovetic, Fabricio Coloccini shanked an attempted clearance against his own post as tried to deal with a dangerous cross from Aleksandar Kolarov.
Sammy Ameobi came on at half-time in place of Newcastle’s goalscorer, Aarons, who had picked up an injury towards the end of the first half, and Paul Dummett did superbly to block a goal-bound effort from Kolarov.
It felt as though City were building towards an equaliser, but instead, Newcastle added a second goal to extend their advantage with 15 minutes left.
Having come on as a second-half substitute, Moussa Sissoko bulldozed his way through the City defence before clipping a composed finish past Willy Caballero.
Taylor blocked a late effort from Dzeko to confirm Newcastle’s clean sheet, and book a place in the League Cup quarter-finals for the first time under Pardew. They would go no further than that though, crashing to a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham in the last eight.
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