IT is 278 miles from Newcastle to Wembley, but for the thousands of black-and-white clad supporters who made the pilgrimage to the national stadium over the weekend, the journey from the North-East to North London had taken 24 years to complete.

Two-and-a-half decades of pain, misery and embarrassment, much of which had been spent supporting a club that openly admitted the cup competitions were ‘not a priority’. Not a priority? Try telling that to the fans who packed out Trafalgar Square on Saturday evening, sang themselves hoarse on Wembley Way this afternoon and are set to party in London long into the night despite their side’s defeat under the arch.

No matter what Newcastle go on to achieve in the years to come under their Saudi Arabia-backed ownership group, this will be remembered as the weekend when a line was finally drawn under the decades of inglorious underachievement under Mike Ashley, and the club’s new era truly began.

“I honestly never thought this day would come,” said Mike Tunstall, a 72-year-old Newcastle fan from Durham, as he surveyed the scene in front of the National Gallery on Saturday night. “Me and my son were here for both of the finals in the 90s, but now my grandson can be with us too. I’ve told him not to expect this every season, but who knows? It feels like we’re back – and we’ve got our club back too.”

And with that, he took a swig from the can of Heineken that was surreptitiously hidden in his coat sleeve. It was that kind of night, that kind of weekend.

Newcastle fans will never admit it, but when Middlesbrough and Sunderland were staging their own London takeovers in the last decade, for play-off finals or the final of the Papa John’s Trophy, there was more than a twinge of Tyneside jealousy. Yes, the Magpies were strutting their stuff in the Premier League, but why was the rest of the North-East getting to party in the capital?

So, from the minute Newcastle booked their place in the Carabao Cup final at the end of last month, plans were frantically put in place. Trains? Fully booked. Planes? Sold out. Automobiles? Bumper to bumper down the A1 and M1. All roads led to London; all itineraries seemed to involve a stop-off in Trafalgar Square.

By 5pm on Saturday, it was pretty much impossible to get down into the square itself, such was the scale of the throng of black-and-white packing it out. By 6pm, you couldn’t really get round the sides of it either, although co-owners Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Jamie Reuben just about managed to stay incognito as they mingled with supporters with their hoods pulled up. Flares illuminated the sky, huge flags fluttered in front of Lord Nelson. The statue has witnessed some sights in its time, but there can’t have been too many occasions when it has looked down on anything quite like Saturday’s scene.

To the Newcastle fans’ huge credit, a group stayed behind to clear up the mess and restore the famous London landmark to its former self. Add litter picking to the list of things Newcastle fans excel at.

As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, so the focus of attention switched away from Trafalgar Square to Wembley. The tubes rattling their way north were standing room only from mid-morning onwards, with Newcastle fans vastly outnumbering their Mancunian rivals, as they had on the previous night. Manchester United sold out their allocation for the final, so their supporters must have come from somewhere. Kent or Essex, perhaps?

Wembley Way was bouncing to refrains of the Blaydon Races in the hours leading up to kick-off, as well as chorus after chorus of ‘We’ve got Bruno in the middle’, the song that has become the soundtrack to Newcastle’s season. Friends were spotted, footballing relationships rekindled. “There’s the fella that sits two rows in front of us,” said one woman to her partner, as she queued up for the Newcastle fanzone that was situated just in front of Wembley Arena. “I’ve known him for years, but I’ve never seen him stood up before.”

There’s every chance he was standing up again in the ten minutes before kick-off, with the Wor Flags group having arranged a remarkable flag and banner display that saw half of Wembley turned into a black-and-white wonderland as the theme from Local Hero boomed out over the PA. For many, that expression of Tyneside pride, witnessed all around the world, will remain the abiding memory of the weekend.

Sadly, it was also as good as things got for the Newcastle fans. The atmosphere simmered during a tense opening half-hour that saw the Magpies embark on a series of threatening breaks without really testing David De Gea in the Manchester goal.

The Spaniard made a good save at his near post from Allan Saint-Maximin, who was the focus of much of Newcastle’s early attacking, but while there was little to choose between the two teams in the opening 33 minutes, that all changed when Manchester United scored twice in the space of six minutes shortly before the break.

Casemiro scored the first, heading home Luke Shaw’s free-kick after Bruno Guimaraes had conceded an unnecessary foul close to the touchline, and Marcus Rashford was responsible for the second, although the England international would almost certainly not have beaten Newcastle’s stand-in goalkeeper, Loris Karius, had his shot not taken a hefty deflection off Sven Botman.

Suddenly, you could have heard a pin drop in the West End of Wembley, with the stunned silence amongst the Newcastle fans standing in marked contrast to the explosion of noise from the opposite end of the stadium, where those dressed in red had finally found their voice. For the Newcastle supporters who had journeyed to Wembley in the late 1990s, when the Magpies lost successive FA Cup finals 2-0, it was a case of ‘here we go again’.

The decibel levels were raised again at the start of the second half, with the half-time introduction of Alexander Isak increasing Newcastle’s threat. ‘Eddie Howe’s black-and-white army’ was belted out defiantly, but while Joelinton came close with shots that were blocked by Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Lisandro Martinez, it was to be another afternoon where the return journey back to the North-East was completed without having had a goal to cheer.

The black-and-white flags reappeared for the final few minutes - proof that pride remained intact despite the final scoreline – and while Newcastle’s players slumped to the Wembley turf at the final whistle, crestfallen at their fate, they were still given a rapturous reception when they trudged to acknowledge their supporters in the stands.

‘Country Roads’ rang out as the Manchester United contingent celebrated – for Newcastle, the road to Wembley begins again next season, with a determination to ensure this is not an outlier when it comes to the club’s cup record.

The hope, as the Magpies continue to grow under their new owners, is that days such as yesterday will become increasingly commonplace. Next time, though, it would be nice to think that the outcome might finally be changed.