Those two wise old heads of Newcastle United - Alan Shearer and Gary Speed - ensured Sir Bobby Robson's side a semi-final place in Europe for the first time in 35 years.
United will now face French outfit Marseille - 1-0 winners against Inter Milan in the San Siro and 2-0 victors on aggregate - as they look to bury the ghost of Joe Harvey's 1969 Fairs Cup winning team and finally bring some silverware back to St James' Park.
But for Newcastle, it was hard going before finally seeing off PSV Eindhoven 2-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate.
With that crucial Jermaine Jenas goal from the first leg 1-1 draw at the Philips Stadium, Sir Bobby's boys got off to a dream start by going ahead inside the opening nine minutes against his former club.
Hard work of the training ground reaped its rewards when Laurent Robert's lethal near-post corner saw Shearer get in front of marker Wilfred Bouma and head in at the near post.
This was Shearer's 27th goal of the season and a record 17th in Europe for Newcastle.
Yet the goal did not spur them on as expected even though Eindhoven - second in the Dutch League - did not manage a shot on or off target in the opening 45 minutes.
Jenas had a couple of good attempts when driving straight at Ronald Waterreus and then not quite managing to keep down a back-post header from another Robert corner.
Having packed their midfield, PSV coach Guus Hiddink sent on the towering Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink at the break and within seven minutes the Dutch side were level with their first effort on target.
But it was an equaliser that was gift-wrapped courtesy of two Newcastle blunders.
First Darren Ambrose was caught napping by the outstanding Park Ji-Sung, who whipped in a hopeful ball from the left and then the usually reliable Olivier Bernard chose to bring the ball down on his chest rather than head clear.
The Frenchman lost control and cruelly scythed down Lee Young-Pyo for a clear-cut penalty which Mateja Kezman duly slotted past Shay Given.
Incredibly the equaliser spurred United on and they pressed PSV in search of the winner that came from another set-piece and another Robert corner after 66 minutes.
Speed did what only he does best when he timed his run to perfection from the edge of the box and rose above Waterreus to plant his header into the net.