10 Times Newcastle United Totally Bottled It In The Big Game

6. Manchester United

Competition: FA Cup Final Season: 1998/99 After the euphoria of squeezing past Tottenham in the semi-final - at Old Trafford nonetheless - Newcastle were brought crashing back down to earth in the FA Cup final thanks to a rampant Manchester United. It was another disenchanting occasion for the Toon faithful as they left Wembley empty handed for the second year in succession. In all honesty it was difficult to see us overcoming a Red Devils side who'd just lifted the Premier League title and were gunning for an unprecedented treble at the time. The FA Cup was phase two and we didn't even come close to being the fly in their soup. It was effectively game over by the 11th minute when substitute Teddy Sheringham was afforded the freedom of our penalty area to give Sir Alex Ferguson's side the lead. Eight minutes into the second half and Man Utd had two hands on the trophy when Paul Scholes profited from a Nikos Dabizas mistake to make it 2-0. As with most of our performances under Ruud Gullit the lukewarm tripe we served up was criminal. The players should have been fuelled by their duty to repay the blind loyalty of supporters who excitedly made the trip to the national stadium only to witness another feeble laying down of arms.