Almost a month on and the pre-match Geordie roar still rings in the ears of Dimitar Mitov.
‘The noise was incredible and whole place shook, I thought it was a little earthquake,’ says the Cambridge United goalkeeper as he reflects on the greatest 90 minutes of his life.
The thrill of the pre-match rumble, the polite ripple of applause from Newcastle fans when he turned a fierce volley from Jacob Murphy onto the bar, the only goal, scored by his housemate Joe Ironside, the well-executed game-plan, the Bulgarian flags held aloft in the top tier at St James’ Park and the post-match euphoria.
Cambridge United goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov has spoken of his rise through English football
Mitov impressed after keeping a clean sheet in his side’s FA Cup giant-killing over Newcastle
‘It took us so long to get back on the bus,’ says Mitov. ‘We celebrated for about an hour and a half, just thinking about what we did. My phone was blowing up and we sat on the coach, everyone just eating and playing cards, watching the reports coming through on the TV and clips of the goal and the highlights.
‘Everybody was talking about the biggest upset in the FA Cup this season and we were thinking, ‘we actually did it’. It is something we can be proud of, I’d say the biggest win for any of us apart from maybe Wes Hoolahan, who has played in play-off finals and in the Euros. We created history and we have memories to last forever.’
The reward for Cambridge is today’s(SAT) fourth round tie, at home to Luton of the Championship, another useful windfall for an ambitious club and manager Mark Bonner, working wonders on the smallest budget in League One.
For Mitov, the acclaim for his outstanding display was further confirmation he made the right move when leaving Bulgaria alone at the age of 16 to follow his dream, accepting a scholarship at Charlton.
The Bulgarian shot stopper has made 98 football league appearances for the Yellows
Mitov started his English career at Charlton before being released and signing with Cambridge
‘I didn’t speak a word of English and it didn’t help when they put me in digs with two Irish lads,’ he smiles. ‘They were nice lads, trying to help me, asking me what I needed but I had no idea what they were saying.
‘I went to school without a translator and had no idea what was going on. I picked up my English watching lots of movies with subtitles. It probably took me two years to have a proper conversation but now I speak better English than Bulgarian.’
The 25-year-old started out as a tall centre forward before pulling on the gloves at the behest of his father Veselin, an electrician and himself a goalkeeper in Bulgaria’s equivalent of local Sunday League football.
Young Mitov earned a place at the Hristo Stoichkov academy near Sofia, broke into Bulgaria’s Under-17s at the age of 15, and caught the attention of English scouts in a 5-2 defeat in Germany. He went on trial to Nottingham Forest and was waiting to hear back when Charlton moved in.
25-year-old says he wants to prove he ‘can play in a high level’ after heroics at St James Park
‘I’ll always be grateful to Charlton for giving my footsteps into English football,’ he says. ‘I sacrificed everything. I left home, family and friends, left all the fun of my teenage years but I don’t regret it, I’m loving every single minute and I’ll never lose the love for it.
‘Diving around being a goalkeeper is the best job in the world and I want to show people I can play in a high level. Dreams are free and I’m dreaming every day that one day I will reach the top.’
Former Charlton teammates have gone on to play in the Premier League, including Nick Pope, Joe Gomez, Ezri Konsa, Ademola Lookman and Karlan Grant.
Mitov was released in 2017 and joined Cambridge, serving as an understudy to David Forde for a year before breaking through.
For the last 18 months, he has lived in one of the club’s houses with Ironside, top-scorer this season and goal hero at Newcastle who has since suffered a hip injury and is not expected to be fit to face Luton.
Mitov’s former teammates include Liverpool’s Joe Gomez (L) and Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa (R)
‘He’s a big miss, not only his goals but his personality and he’s the DJ in the dressing room,’ says Mitov as a he explains the rhythms of their domestic bliss.
‘Nothing complicated, we wake up, go to training. After training, sometimes we go out for food or coffee or come home and chill, play some darts. We have a little dartboard in the living room. Joe is the best, to be fair. He hits 180s and his doubles are on point.
‘If there’s football on telly we watch football, cook dinner and go to bed. You can’t do much when you’re playing Saturday-Tuesday with so much travelling. You have to let your body and mind recover. You can’t do things like going off to London shopping.’
This sensible approach will be familiar to friends at the Abbey Stadium. Amid the wild celebrations at Newcastle, microphones caught Mitov reminding teammates of their Papa John’s Trophy tie against Portsmouth, three days later.
Joe Ironside scored the goal that sent Cambridge through to the fourth round of the FA Cup
He has become a key figure behind the club’s rise, for his unyielding positivity as much as for his excellent form in goal, and everyone is thrilled to see his talent receive recognition, here and back home.
‘Newcastle was the first time one of my games was shown live in Bulgaria,’ says Mitov, whose parents and sister have not travelled to see him play since the pandemic but watch every game on the EFL’s iFollow streaming service.
‘This game was on national television with a studio and everything, and I had thousands of messages from people watching me for the first time, saying how well we played, how proud they were of me.
‘I think I’ve had better games but, no disrespect, you can do it away at Burton and nobody will say anything. I needed to show on a big stage I was good enough, and I’m glad that happened.’
25-year-old says ‘the manager will have the perfect game-plan’ for next round tie against Luton
The Luton tie will be shown live in Bulgaria, too, and there are plans in place to ensure Mitov’s grandfather can see him playing for the first time.
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‘I’m really excited about that,’ says Mitov. ‘I was looking for Manchester United away, but Luton at home is really good to have a home tie for the fans and we go in as underdogs again.
‘Everybody will expect Luton to win but we’re hard to beat at home. The manager will have the perfect game-plan, we’ll do our best and you never know with the magic of the FA Cup. Stranger things have happened.’
Indeed they have. Just ask Newcastle.