'It should be inspiring': Eddie Howe is determined to use the 70-year trophy drought narrative as a driving force

Just in case it has been over a minute since you were last reminded, it has been 70 years since Newcastle United won a domestic trophy and with Eddie Howe leading his team to Wembley on Sunday to try and end that run, the question has been asked whether it adds more pressure.

Football commentators must be in some sort of competition as to which one can mention the trophy drought the quickest following a kick-off. Sam Matterface is the current record holder, we believe. It took him just 14 seconds to mention it after the referee's first whistle when Newcastle took on Brighton a fortnight ago.

We're not sure which broadcaster holds the records for most mentions of it during a pre-match buildup as we tend to lose count.

As much as it's going to be fantastic when we finally see our lads hoist up a major honour, the feeling we'll get when this narrative is finally ended will be just as great.

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Eddie Howe wants to use the 70-year drought stat as a positive force

Naturally, when Eddie Howe spoke to the media this morning (via The Chronicle) ahead of Sunday's cup final, the stat was mentioned again, and Howe said he understands why it's used as a negative, but he's challenged his players to use it as a positive.

"It's a difficult one because I think a lot's made of that, of course I understand why. But I think it's a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone's feeling.

"It should be inspiring for us - not a negative. I understand it will be a negative or a perceived negative for a lot of people, but we're trying to look at it the other way round.

"It's a chance to make history for us as a team - that's very rare in football. You get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively.

"I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to get a good representation of us."

Big Dan Burn can be the man to make sure the squad knows how important this is

We've got to use anything we can to push us on that little bit further.

Finally putting an end to that perverse satisfaction broadcasters get out bringing up that stat should be a huge driving force, but not many of our lads will know just how irritating it is.

Dan Burn will, though, so hopefully our new England star will be able to convey just how much it will mean to the fans to the rest of the squad.