Newcastle United set new record by 349

Newcastle United set a new record on 9 November 2022.

For over 46 years, the record for a home League Cup match was the 49,902 back on 21 January 1976, when Newcastle United beat Spurs 3-1.

That home second leg semi-final saw Newcastle progress to their first and still only League Cup final, Man City winning 2-1 thanks to a lucky Dennis Tueart goal…typical, a Newcastle United fan depriving us of a trophy.

Anyway, the League Cup victory on penalties in November saw 51,660 inside St James’ Park to set a new record, only the unsold tickets in the Crystal Palace section preventing a totally full SJP.

The opportunity of course presented itself again in December, for yet another new record League Cup home crowd to be set, only 41 days after that new record set against Palace, with this time Bournemouth the visitors.

The match sold out swiftly for Newcastle United fans, but with 51,660 to beat, NUFC failed by 82 to set a new record. Bournemouth only selling 463 of their 1,079 ticket allocation and with segregation issues, separate entrances / exits etc, it wasn’t possible for any of their unsold 600 or so tickets to be sold to Newcastle fans, so those seats were empty, the crowd for that Bournemouth cup game announced as 51,579.

Moving swiftly on, we get to last night.

Leicester originally took 11 blocks of seats in Level 7 totaling 4,800 tickets, however, almost 4,000 of them were returned unsold and quickly bought up by Newcastle fans.

Left with two blocks of seats and and not many more than 1,000 tickets, reports ahead of the game from the East Midlands, stated that the Foxes were well short of selling even these tickets. Putting in doubt once again that a new League Cup record crowd would be set at St James’ Park.

In the event, when it got to kick-off time last night, there were clearly a fair number of unsold seats in the away section, just a case of how many?

The official crowd eventually declared as 52,009. A total that beats the previous SJP League Cup record (51,660 v Palace) by 349.

As you can see here though, there were a lot of empty seats in another part of St James’ Park last night…

Rather bizarrely, there were hundreds of empty seats in the Directors Box, in the middle of the Milburn Stand (see above).

A bit of a shame that with so many people desperate for tickets, the club didn’t find some way to fill these seats. As to why there were so few seats taken up in the Directors Box I haven’t got a clue.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 2 Leicester 0 – Tuesday 10 January 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Burn 60, Joelinton 72

Leicester:

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Leicester 48% (42%) Newcastle 52% (58%)

Total shots were Leicester 7 (2) Newcastle 22 (12)

Shots on target were Leicester 1 (1) Newcastle 9 (3)

Corners were Leicester 4 (2) Newcastle 12 (5)

Referee: Darren England

Attendance: 52,009 (1,000 Leicester)

Newcastle United:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Longstaff, Willock (Murphy 90), Almiron (Saint-Maximin 84), Joelinton, Wilson (Isak 78)

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Lascelles, Ritchie, Manquillo, Anderson, Wood

(Kieron Dyer talking Wednesday morning about Joelinton – I can’t believe what I just heard – Read HERE)

(Eddie Howe explains how Disco Dan Burn dancing happened – Brilliant man management – Read HERE)

(Brendan Rodgers with admirable honesty after Newcastle United cup defeat – Fair play – Read HERE)

(Watch official Newcastle 2 Leicester 0 match highlights HERE including quality goals and numerous chances)

(BBC Sport comments from ‘neutrals’ – Very interesting on Newcastle United after Leicester cup match – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 2 Leicester 0 – The instant NUFC fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)

(The photo Newcastle United fans all wanted to see on Tuesday… See / Read HERE)