On a wall under the main stand at Newcastle United, near a board recording the club’s top scorers and appearance makers, is a framed photo. It shows a full stadium from a game in 2001 with the scoreline underneath: Newcastle United 4 Manchester United 3. These victories were once so rare that they were worth memorialising and displaying next to the most esteemed names in the Geordies’ history. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/manchester-united/" target="_blank">Manchester United </a>were the top dogs, the giants seldom slayed, a club so influential that they could take some of the best players raised on Newcastle United’s doorstep and help them become serial winners. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2023/10/21/england-football-legend-sir-bobby-charlton-dies-aged-86/" target="_blank">Bobby Charlton</a>, Bryan Robson, Michael Carrick, Ray Wood and Steve Bruce - all of them Geordies. Not now, when an ascendant Newcastle regularly beat United. Sunday’s 4-1 hammering was the first time that <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2025/03/17/newcastle-league-cup-hero-dan-burn-i-feel-like-im-dreaming/" target="_blank">Newcastle </a>have done a league double over them since 1930-31, back at a time when United's all-time top goalscorer was another man born and raised on the banks of the River Tyne near Blaydon, Joe Spence. Newcastle are fourth in the Premier League, 18 points ahead of Manchester United, who sit 14th. The last time the Red Devils finished lower than 13th, the team was relegated in 1974. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/ruben-amorim/" target="_blank">Ruben Amorim</a>’s side won’t go down this season since there is the insurance of the teams who have been promoted immediately being relegated from the Premier League, but this season can only be saved by victory in the Europa League in Bilbao next month. It’s hard to put too much hope on to a team who are so poor, so early in Amorim's project. But Manchester United’s European form has been one positive from this season. The only unbeaten side of the 72 who played group stage football in the Champions League or the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2025/04/09/andre-onana-and-nemanja-matic-war-of-words-escalates-ahead-of-europa-league-showdown/" target="_blank">Europa League</a>, Lyon await at Old Trafford on Thursday in the quarter-final second leg after a 2-2 draw by the Rhone last week. The English team were seconds away from a notable victory, but a 2-2 draw in noisy Lyon is as creditable as a 1-1 draw in San Sebastian in the previous round. If Joshua Zirkzee, who left the St James’ Park pitch with a hamstring injury, is to miss the game then it’s a blow. But players were rested ahead of Thursday as cup takes precedence over the league. It happened before in 2017 when Jose Mourinho ruthlessly and successfully targeted victory in the competition. United’s season has been Bilbao or bust for a while now, with a triumph in the continent’s secondary cup competition hugely attractive. It would give direct access to the Champions League next season, and with some much needed financial boost. It would also bring the glory of a trophy. Playing in the top competition is enticing to potential summer recruits, not that this Old Trafford side are close to being able to win it. It would also end this season, like the last one, on a high. However, Lyon are competent. Paulo Fonseca’s side are fourth behind PSG, Monaco and Marseille. They are in better form than two of those above them too, with Sunday’s 3-1 win at Auxerre their latest triumph. They feel confident and emboldened coming to Old Trafford, and their fans will be as loud as any visiting French team. PSG, Saint Etienne and Marseille have been among the loudest and most impressive to visit in recent years. So what can United do? Keep calm and carry on as they have been doing all season in Europe, unbeaten in 11 games. And doing so with the proper backing of their supporters, just as United fans roared their team to success at the same stage against Barcelona in 1984. Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, the Old Trafford crowd helped them to a 3-0 triumph and a place in the semi-finals in the second. There wasn’t a United fan who didn’t leave the stadium with a sore throat that night; they’d done their bit. Players feed off the crowd, for better or worse. If the crowd is tense, those on the pitch feel it. United fans have frozen like their team for some bigger European games – notably against Sevilla in 2018 when two Spanish goals stunned supporters into near silence. Elimination followed. At their best, the fans are the 12th man that Amorim said it could be in Lyon, the one Lyon’s Nemanja Matic fears can hit his teammates with a visceral vocal punch more primal than the choreographed noise of any French stadium. The noise that accompanied the team even in defeat, as on Sunday in Newcastle, must be replicated at Old Trafford. What’s the alternative? <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2025/04/11/it-can-happen-amorim-defends-onana-after-errors-cost-man-united-against-lyon-in-europa-league/" target="_blank">Criticise a goalkeeper </a>who is making mistakes and is suffering in a low moment, or get behind him? Arrive 10 minutes before the game, groan and moan – and there’s much to moan about right now - and go home with the season over? It’s easy to support a team when they are successful and revel in its glow. It’s harder when the team are as poor as the current Manchester United side. This team needs support more than ever. Sunday at Newcastle was another season low for Amorim’s team; a 14th league defeat, another four goals conceded, another injury, another hour of bewilderment after 30 positive minutes of football. Of the 21 league games under Amorim, United have won only six – and four of those were against bottom of the table teams. But things have been better in Europe. Thursday is a huge game, Manchester United’s biggest of the season. For one night, this battered old club which is down on its knees needs a helping hand from the many thousands off the pitch.
