Newcastle United’s wins in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup this week, supplemented by league form that’s shot them from twelfth to fifth in just over a month, has fans on Tyneside dreaming that their long trophy drought may finally break soon.

Their 2-0 defeat of Arsenal in London in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final has them in the box seat ahead of the return fixture at home in early February; much further from their grasp but still stoking the positivity around the club was Sunday’s 3-1 win at Bromley, to move into the FA Cup’s fourth round and keep chances of another trophy alive.

Now just a win from a club-record nine consecutive victories in all competitions, and only a point behind Chelsea in the Champions League positions with two home fixtures up next, excitement among the St James’ Park support has every reason to be boiling over – but for the fact they’ve been burned before, over a long stretch.

‘It’s tentative to hope and dream. There’s always hope but for Newcastle United, a club that hasn’t won any major silverware since 1969 and haven’t won a domestic trophy since 1955, there is always trepidation’, The Athletic’s Chris Waugh told Box2Box.

‘There is, however, also eternal belief, and it does feel like momentum is really building right now. You could argue they’ve one foot in the Carabao Cup final, they’ve won at Old Trafford for only the second time since 1972 during a run of five consecutive League victories, and also overcame Bromley after an early setback.

‘In the FA Cup fourth round they have an away tie at League One leaders Birmingham City, that looks a relatively favourable draw… so belief is growing, but there’s always the slight reservation about the fact that they have a long history of cocking these sorts of things up.’

Nearing a century since their fourth and most recent English League title (1926/27) and seventy seasons since lifting their sixth FA Cup, there are generations of Toon supporters baying to see feats of yesteryear repeated. They feel they’ve earned time in the sun: twice finishing second in the League in the mid-to-late 90’s, and twice crashing to relegation this millennium.

Even more important to their continual growth than lifting a one-off Cup, contend Waugh, is to continually front up in the Champions League, where they returned last season after a twenty year absence.

Now over three years on from their takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – where their assumed ‘turbocharging’ was stymied by stricter modern financial regulations than imposed on Manchester City fifteen years ago, for example – their progress has been far from linear. But Waugh feels the build could be set to ignite.

‘The chair, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Newcastle’s 85% owner, said that goal is to be No.1. Now, that looks extremely ambitious because obviously they were nowhere near that when the takeover happened in October 2021, and with the PSR restrictions that are there, it’s very difficult to turbocharge the club and jump into the elite.

‘If they can start winning trophies and retain the likes of Alexander Isak, and by the end of the decade are in the Champions League every season, that should allow a snowball effect – greater revenue allows them to spend more, on theoretically better players, to then grow and become this elite club.

‘I think they’re best placed to do that. It’s not been linear since the takeover, but I think they’re starting to find their level.’