Wembley win ‘better than Champions League’ for Newcastle United player’s family

Jacob Murphy’s dad has described Oxford United’s League One play-off win as the “best day” of his life - that even topped the Champions League.

Murphy’s twin brother, Josh, bagged a stunning brace for the U’s to book their place in the Championship next season. All the clan were at Wembley to watch Oxford but Bolton Wanderers - the pre-match favourites - to the sword.

The duo broke through the ranks at Norwich City together before going their separate ways once Newcastle signed Jacob in 2017. A topsy-turvy seven years on Tyneside has resulted in Murphy being a forgotten man, shipped out on loan to several clubs, before starring under Eddie Howe.

The Murphy brothers’ family hail from the North East, with their mother from Birtley and dad from Ashington. This led to the twins supporting Newcastle as youngsters, with Jacob revealing it was his “dream” to play for the club.

But for the family, watching Josh clinch Wembley glory ranks as No.1 on the brothers’ footballing achievements. Their dad, John, told This Is Oxfordshire: “We have seen Champions League with Jacob and Newcastle but I think personally that topped it. Just for the pure relief and joy, it's really hard to describe actually how happy he genuinely was.

“As a father and as parents it was one of the best days of our lives. We have had some fantastic footballing highlights in our family, and it was probably one of the best because it was pure joy from Josh’s point of view.

“It’s been a quite few years since I have seen him genuinely happy but yesterday was one of the true days you could see in his eyes he was genuinely happy. I know in the family group chat during the game Jacob was very active but we missed a lot of it because we were in the heat of it. They are each other’s biggest fans.