There are finals you win by playing the better football, and finals you win in spite of it. Tottenham's first major trophy belongs firmly in the second category — and they will not care one bit.

On a charged Monday night in front of 52,735 at a packed home ground, Newcastle threw everything at this ENG Cup final and came away with nothing. Twenty shots. Thirteen on target. Fifty-six per cent of the ball. One corner against six, sure, but a siege all the same. And at the end of it, after 120 minutes could not separate them, it was Tottenham who held their nerve from the spot to win 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw — and kw0w's Newcastle who were left staring at the turf.

A perfect start, then 80 minutes of survival

Spurs could hardly have scripted the opening better. With ten minutes gone, Christos Mouzakitis threaded the ball through and James Maddison did the rest, sliding home to silence the home end. It would prove to be the only time all tournament that Newcastle's net bulged — but more on that later.

The early lead came at a cost. On 18 minutes Pedro Porro went down injured and could not continue, Archie Gray sent on in his place, and from there the shape of the night was set: Newcastle pouring forward, Tottenham digging a trench.

What followed was a goalkeeping performance to win a cup on its own. Guglielmo Vicario finished with twelve saves and a deserved rating of 8, repelling Anthony Gordon again and again — the Newcastle forward alone had nine attempts. When Gordon finally beat him on 61 minutes, latching onto a chance and rifling past him for the equaliser, it felt like the dam had broken. It hadn't. Curiously, Gordon was withdrawn barely two minutes after his goal, and the door Vicario had been holding never quite came off its hinges again.

Heartbreak on home soil

Spurs survived the second half, survived extra time, and then did what good cup sides do when the game is up: they won the lottery. Tottenham converted three of their spot-kicks to Newcastle's two, and the cup was theirs.

For Newcastle, this one will sting for a long time. Consider the run they had assembled: six ties, six clean sheets, thirteen goals scored and none conceded — Millwall (3-0), Preston (4-0), Stoke-on-Trent Burslem (3-0), Hull (1-0), Brighton (1-0) and Leeds (1-0) all dispatched without their goalkeeper picking the ball out of his net once. They played every round, the final included, on their own patch. They conceded their first goal of the entire competition in the one match they could not afford to — and could not find the second of their own despite peppering Vicario for an hour and a half.

Man of the match, fittingly and cruelly, went to a man in black and white: Joelinton, who pulled the strings with seven key passes and an 8 rating. Jacob Murphy matched that mark. It was, by almost every measure that isn't the scoreline, Newcastle's final. The scoreline is the only measure that hangs a medal round your neck.

Taddy's long road to silverware

Spare a thought, too, for what this means at the other end. Under Taddy, Tottenham finished runners-up in ENG Division 1 in Season 1, slipped to sixth in Season 2, and have now answered the nearly-man tag in the most emphatic way a cup can provide — a trophy, on the road, against the run of play, in a competition worth some 71.8m SVC. You do not always need to play the best to win the cup. You need a goalkeeper, a moment, and the bottle to take your penalties. Taddy's side had all three.

And there's no time to mourn

The brutal twist for Newcastle is that redemption is only days away. On Saturday they host Kiev in the Cup Winners' Cup final — a second cup final inside a week, and a chance to make sure this fortnight is remembered for silverware rather than spot-kicks. Twenty shots won them nothing on Monday. They will hope a kinder night, and a less inspired opposing goalkeeper, await them on Saturday.

The mood across the community, as the season's finals played out, was generous to both ends of the result:

Congrats to all victors 🥳; that's amazing feat. And congrats to all runners-up; your incredible performance to the final is no easy journey. 💐

Tottenham have the trophy. Newcastle have the regret — and one more shot at putting it right.