TYNESIDE’S craving for a first trophy in 36 years is so deeply rooted that they would probably cut any deal with the devil to see it happen. The end of the world or, worse still, promotion for Sunderland; anything is tolerable, as long as they have lived to see Alan Shearer holding silverware.

Newcastle United’s prospects were enhanced yesterday when the FA Cup quarter-final draw gave them a home tie against Tottenham Hotspur or Nottingham Forest. Visions of Shearer hoisting the old trophy before heading into retirement should lift even the meanest of spirits, but — and you knew there was a “but” coming — success might come at a heavy cost.

Lifting the FA Cup, particularly 50 years after they last won it, would bolster Graeme Souness’s position almost to the point where he might become unsackable. Removed from the emotion of Sunday’s victory over Chelsea, that is a scenario that might make even the famously underdressed Geordies feel the chill.

Impatience with Souness’s regime may have eased at the weekend, but the manner of victory only emboldened critics who cite a lack of detailed planning and tactical intelligence. Don’t just take it from me. In his newspaper column yesterday, Gordon Strachan was scathing, considering that he was writing about a team that had just inflicted only the third defeat of the season on Jos é Mourinho’s Chelsea.

“Newcastle’s use of the ball when they got it back was as bad as I have seen from them this season,” the former Southampton manager wrote. “Graeme Souness will be scratching his head about how his team won with that level of passing performance.”

Consider that Chelsea not only lost their left back with 43 minutes to play, but, having already made three substitutions, had no one to replace him. Newcastle’s response? Kieron Dyer, the right winger, moved so far inside that both teams appeared to have only ten men. In hauling Dyer to the bench, the manager evidently blamed a half-witted player, but why are Souness’s squad not following instructions? If that was bad, there was dismay in watching the performance of Jermaine Jenas. One of the country’s brightest young talents, the England midfield player is making such slow progress that dark mutterings about the standard of coaching sound increasingly credible.

Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, has talked of the need to give Souness time, but that assumes that the club believe that they have the right man in position. Is the board really sure, given that the Scot was, at best, fourth choice?

Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce were sounded out, while the board went to considerable lengths to try to unite a dream team of Steve McClaren and Shearer after the messy removal of Sir Bobby Robson. Incidentally, Douglas Hall, the vice-chairman, made a classy remark at the weekend about his former manager. “We had to get rid of him, he would have got us relegated,” Hall said. “There’s nothing more certain; we were going down.”

It was a cheap shot fired from a position of weakness. Newcastle have too many good players not to be capable of climbing the table, or reaching a cup final, but they lie thirteenth in the Premiership.

Winning the FA Cup, or the Uefa Cup, would make Tyneside so deliriously happy that Newcastle supporters would take it, even if strings are attached as well as black and white ribbons. Success would end almost four decades of frustration. Whether it would signal the start of a bright new era is questionable.