Martin Dubravka breaks silence on ‘strange’ Newcastle United incident, sets sights on second Carabao Cup medal

Martin Dubravka has opened up about the ‘strange’ set of circumstances that saw him receive a Carabao Cup winners medal last season, despite Newcastle United losing at Wembley. Dubravka spent the first-half of the season on-loan at Manchester United and played in two of their Carabao Cup games en-route to Wembley.

Although he returned to the north east in January, Dubravka was still eligible for a winners medal and the Slovakian has revealed that he did receive one despite watching his club lose at Wembley. Asked whether he got a medal and his experiences of that final, Dubravka said: "I got one. I didn't really expect it because I didn't know if they would give it to me. 

“It was [strange] but if you think about it, it's part of the game. I played two matches for them and how many matches was it to get to the final so it was a strange situation to be in, I didn't want to be in it.

“The final last season was the strangest game for me as you can imagine! I played two matches for Manchester United and I was back in the team so everyone was asking me who I'm going to support? I always say I always support Newcastle because of the length of time I've spent here. 

“It was five and a half years as opposed to five months so you can't compare. I wanted Newcastle to win for the city, for the club because the fans are just waiting for something special.”

This time around, however, Dubravka has the opportunity to help the Magpies reach Wembley yet again and, hopefully, see his team go one step further and end their long wait for domestic silverware - a wait that currently stands at 68 years. Injury to Nick Pope, who missed last season’s final through suspension, means that Dubravka is now the club’s first-choice goalkeeper and he has insisted that it would be ‘fantastic’ to help the club lift a major trophy.

Dubravka said: "It would be absolutely fantastic. Everyone is buzzing here and everyone wants to win something and achieve something here and it would be amazing. Look at the stadium and look at the fans, it's a special place to play so it would be amazing to win something.

“We have a good team and there's a balance within the team. We have a couple of injuries and it's not easy when you have as many games as we have but there's a possibility to win it for us, you have to have the highest ambitions.

"It means everything to me. As I said, I've spent so much time here. I could have left the club a couple of years ago but I didn't want to  because this is a special place, the fans and the city are connected, you could see that again today. 

“The fans travel everywhere to support us and the amount of requests for tickets you  can't imagine how many. The stadium should be 100,000 capacity.”