CRAIG HOPE: A flashback 70 years to the Newcastle side the club’s current stars will aim to emulate

Find the difference. The current stars of Newcastle United may be the toast of Tyneside, but they’ve never sipped champagne as part of their victorious dressing room photos. Not yet, anyway.

The boys from 1952 did, and as our photograph of the old Wembley locker room shows, a topless Jackie Milburn leads the celebration with a glass of soda after their 1-0 win over Arsenal in the World Cup final. FA Cup. The Chilean George Robledo headed the only goal at the end, a moment drawn by a young John Lennon who appears on the cover of his 1974 album, Walls and Bridges.

But from Wor Jackie to Wor Sean, Newcastle will be back at Wembley this month when they play Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final.

Geordie midfielder Sean Longstaff scored both goals in a 2-1 semi-final win over Southampton in the second leg on Tuesday. Later, as is the tradition in Eddie Howe’s squad, they took a photo in his dressing room.

Seventy years ago, when Newcastle won three FA Cups in five seasons, those moments were reserved only for trophies. But it hasn’t been since 1955 that the Urracas have lifted a domestic trophy with the last of that historic triplet.

Newcastle’s victory in the 1952 FA Cup Final was one of three wins in five years

Newcastle’s current squad will be looking to end the club’s trophy drought in the Carabao Cup final

Club historian Paul Joannou has recounted the barren years, but smiles when shown the image from 1952.

“Jackie was never much of a drinker, but I’m sure he had a couple that day,” says the 66-year-old author of Newcastle United: The Ultimate Record.

‘The ’52 team was the best of those three cups. George Robledo is hidden in the back of the picture, between trainer Norman Smith and the great Frank Brennan. His brother, Ted Robledo, is in the back row, far left. They were the first foreigners to play for the same side in an FA Cup final. George’s shirt is still on display at St James’. He has the coat of arms of the city where the shield is today; they only used it for the finals until they got their own crest in 1976.’

The team moved to the Savoy in London, where the menu included salmon tartare, mussels with asparagus and veal mains. Entertainment came from comedian Charlie Chester. These days, Dan Burn’s dancing is putting smiles on faces.

Adds Joannou: ‘Look at the size of Frank Brennan in the center of the back row. He was the Dan Burn of this team. My dad was a catering manager at the County Hotel in Newcastle, where the players liked to hang out. He was telling me that Frank had six sausages and three eggs for breakfast.

‘Like Eddie’s side, they built on brilliant defence, with Frank, Bobby Cowell, Alf McMichael and Joe Harvey at mid-wing. They were electric on attack as well, with Milburn, George Robledo and Bobby Mitchell all providing the assists that day. But today’s team doesn’t have a Wor Jackie, it was something else.

Joannou will be at Wembley on February 26, hoping that every word he has written about the club’s wait for a trophy will be redundant.

“The history of this club never ends,” he says. Every day, every week, there is more intrigue, history is written before us.