Longstaff emotional as Newcastle reach final and admits Shelvey transfer hit squad hard

Longstaff scored twice in a 3-1 aggregate win over Southampton to fire the Magpies to a first final since 1999, and puts them just one win away from a first trophy since 1969.

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The Toon Army are heading to Wembley and Eddie Howe deserves a huge amount of credit.

Longstaff admitted that he, and most of the squad, will be forever grateful to their manager.

"It's amazing, quite emotional to be honest," he told talkSPORT. "Not just me, but a lot of the boys have come a long way and were written off a little bit.

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"The manager has come in and turned a lot of our careers around and a lot of us will be forever grateful to him.

"We work hard every day to get better and better. A lot of it is down to the manager and he's getting the best out of a lot of players.

"We love working with him and will be forever grateful to him."

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It was an emotional night in more ways than one as Jonjo Shelvey said his goodbyes after seven years at St. James' Park, as he joined Nottingham Forest.

Longstaff admitted that has affected the squad and recalled his first meeting with the former Charlton academy graduate.

"It's really emotional," Longstaff continued. "I probably could have burst out crying. I spoke to Burny [Dan Burn] after the game and he said even in the warm up trying to concentrate was impossible. His eyes were filling up and mine were as well.

"We lost Jonjo today as well and that's been emotional for the group. He's been here a long time. I still remember the first time I met him at the orange juice machine.

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"We are really sad and of course Woodsy [Chris Wood] gone too, so we've lost key parts of our team. The group was so together that it is quite sad when people leave now.

"It was great to see them tonight and an overall amazing night for the club."

While departures is something all footballers have to deal with, Newcastle have plenty to be positive about.

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Anthony Gordon signed from Everton in a £45million deal and Longstaff thinks we will see the best out of him at Newcastle.

"Really excited. I was over the moon when we signed him," Longstaff added. "When you watch him, he's got such great energy, can go both ways, left and right feet.

"We didn't really train yesterday, but he was out on the grass by himself and he had probably 10 coaches and the whole squad watching him. Nothing like a bit of pressure on your first day.

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"Delighted to have him, seems like a really nice lad. Working with the manger, he's probably going to get the best out of him.

"Hopefully a few more nights like this to look forward to."

Newcastle will go on to play either Manchester United or Southampton in the Carabao Cup final in February.