Recipient of everyone's backpats and ribands will, of course, be Macdonald, whose early blustering around the goalmouth metamorphosed into something far more deadly. But if the gratitude is to be fairly apportioned, it was the marvellous Hibbitt and trailing McDermott who between them turned this match from a rather scruffy affair to the second-half landslide which Burnley suddenly had on their hands.

All the early frenzy belonged to the Newcastle supporters, massed in black and white profusion on the high terraces like some dirty, vast and fleshy snowdrift, against whose self-righteous bellowings the noise of the Burnley crowd was reduced to a modest peep. On the pitch, things were not so one-sided. When small Nulty rose gigantically to head the ball against the crossbar, when Tudor turned in a ball from Macdonald only to see it blasted hugely over the bar, the pattern of missed chances seemed to be set.

Certainly, in neatness and imagination, Newcastle were being outplayed, the ball sifting and glancing with disturbing speed through the Burnley midfield. But up front Fletcher was a toiling disappointment and Casper spent much of his time yoked firmly between Howard and Moncur. Dobson tried his level-headed best, just missing out on the half-hour with his scuttling, ducking header; the ensuing commotion ended with Macdonald belting up the left wing and delivering a shot which razored past the far post while the Burnley defence hurtled gamely after it.

Generally, though, it was a rather soused and flat first half, ending with Hibbitt in a low, sorry heap after a foul by Noble; and when the second half began in like manner, the pointers were more towards villainy than a victory for anyone. Noble, this captive tank of Burnley's, had motored down the right wing and, squashing Smith, no player to be monkeyed about with, received a booking for his misbehaviour. Smith avenged himself with a churlish little foul on Nulty, who had done no one harm, and perhaps it was best for the quality of the game that, after due Newcastle pressure, Macdonald did his duty at last.

Fouled, inevitably by Noble, as he homed magnificently on goal, Macdonald faltered and weighed up his chances of a penalty before deciding to thresh on. Stevenson blanked out his first shot with great bravura; Macdonald merely careered to the right, and though Waldron poked his torso at him from the goalline, the ball whistled smartly past the unfortunate No.5's ear. Macdonald was chased back to the centre circle by an exalting Tudor as the Newcastle supporters orchestrated their joy.

Burnley took a while to collapse, but they were surely undermined, giving away two successive corners in which only Newcastle's over-eagerness and Macdonald's slapdash misheader saved them from immediate disaster. True, they were still functioning up front, McFaul producing two prodigious saves from Collins and James: one abdomen-crippling catch and one urgent lambast over the bar. After a wasted Burnley free-kick near the Newcastle penalty area, Hibbitt salvaged the ball, spotted that Macdonald was rocketing on his right and passed to him. Thompson could offer no defence, nor could Stevenson, who merely had the displeasure of watching the pesky, bulky centre-forward clout the ball unanswerably past him.

As the frothing, hawking, roaring noise of the Newcastle supporters rose into the Sheffield air, McFaul produced a save the way conjurors produce pigeons, jabbing out his left hand at a point-blank Casper volley to send the ball floating magically over the crossbar. It was Burnley's last chance - perhaps their only real chance - and they could not take it. "Some of my players cried, and I cried with them," said Burnley manager Jimmy Adamson mournfully afterwards. "If only we could have got a goal in the first half...But when you have a centre-forward like Macdonald, you can have 10 bad players and might still win."

By then, on a tide of Ey-ay-addios and seat cushions, the Newcastle supporters had overboiled into a victory they had always claimed was theirs by right. With the mileage of those two replayed quarter-finals behind them, with everybody condoning their presence at Sheffield yesterday, and with Malcolm Macdonald claiming he is good enough for the England team, Newcastle made it deservedly. As Joe Harvey said: "It all came right in the end."

Burnley: Stevenson, Noble, Newton, Dobson, Waldron, Thompson, Nulty, Casper, Fletcher, Collins, James. Sub: Hankin

Newcastle: McFaul, Craig, Clark, McDermott, Howard, Moncur, Cassidy, Smith, Macdonald, Tudor, Hibbitt. Sub: Kennedy

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