We returned to the north-east at 4.30am after our semi-final with Manchester United, on a journey that defied belief. And the worrying thing is, despite the Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick insisting the FA Cup final will now be played at Wembley, he has booked Cardiff ... just in case.
"We are assured by the builders Multiplex that the stadium will be handed over to us by March 31, which should give us the lead-up time to hold this season's FA Cup final there on May 13," he revealed.
"That remains our ambition. In the past couple of weeks, we have taken what I believe is the prudent step of booking an alternative, the Millennium Stadium. So we will have somewhere to play the FA Cup final."
So ... if we DO reach the final (and we are Geordies and always believe in fairytales) ... it could we make that horror trip again.