On this day in 1998, Newcastle United lost to Arsenal in the FA Cup final. Alan Shearer was one of many players who underperformed on the day, leading to the Magpies suffering a 2-0 defeat in front of more than 79,000 supporters at Wembley.
Kenny Dalglish started Shay Given, Warren Barton, Nikos Dabizas, Stuart Pearce, Alessandro Pistone, Steve Howey, David Batty, Temuri Ketsbaia, Rob Lee, Gary Speed and Alan Shearer, but all his players fell short.
Shearer scored just two goals from 17 league games in 1997/98 and struggled to make an impact against Arsenal.
Newcastle reached the final by beating Everton 1-0 in the third round, Stevenage Borough 2-1 in the fourth round, Tranmere Rovers 1-0 in the fifth round, Barnsley 3-1 in the quarter-final and Sheffield United 1-0 in the semi-final, but they let themselves down against Arsenal.
The Magpies finished 13th in the Premier League that season while the Gunners won the title, so they went into the match as big underdogs. And having lost both league head-to-heads with Arsenal was a bad omen too. Sadly, Newcastle’s last FA Cup triumph was back in 1955.
In other news, Newcastle lose Second Division playoff semis to Sunderland on this day in 1990
