Joe Hart has hit back at the ‘haters’ after hundreds of thousands of Geordies celebrated Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup triumph in the city.
Around 300,000 Newcastle fans took to the streets and the Town Moor on Saturday to mark the Magpies’ first piece of major domestic silverware in seven decades. A visibly moved Eddie Howe described the turnout as ‘absolutely mind-blowing’ after seeing supporters climb phone boxes, bus stops and traffic lights just to get a glimpse of his side moving past on an open-top bus.
However, Jamie O’Hara bizarrely slammed Newcastle’s celebrations as ’embarrassing’ and claimed that the Carabao Cup ‘used to be called the Dog and Duck Cup’. O’Hara hissed that Newcastle were ‘acting like they have won the Premier League and Champions League’, but the former Spurs midfielder was very much in the minority as Hart explained.
“I know there will be a lot of haters looking at that Newcastle celebration, a lot of people saying, ‘You’ve won the League Cup. Calm down,'” the former England number one told the Monday Night Football Club. “But, no, absolutely not.
“That was an incredible moment for that city, an incredible moment for that football club. It’s a huge football club, a football club that is many people’s second team if you’re not a Geordie and not from Sunderland, obviously.
“At Manchester City, when we did that and won that first trophy, which we’re all very accustomed to doing now, that emotion that went on, especially in the semi-final to beat Manchester United and then go on and win that trophy, it felt like everything. The emotion that came out from right the way down the City supporters – from the brand new ones to the guys who had not experienced it in so many years and been through the leagues….
“We had an open-top bus parade. We went through the streets. We ended up at the stadium. It was one of the greatest things. We sold the stadium out just to come and be presented after winning that FA Cup. It was one of the best feelings in my football career.”
