On 14 February this yr it is going to be half a century since a shy, unaffiliated, nine-year-old lad had a Valentine’s Day encounter with the phenomenon that’s Sunderland AFC that left him hooked and obsessed and destined for a lifetime of joys, wonders and sorrows following a membership with no notion of mid-table mediocrity!
On 14 February 1976, Sunderland have been taking part in an FA Cup Fifth Spherical tie on the previous Victoria Floor towards Stoke Metropolis, the closest membership to my house within the Potteries. A few months earlier I had watched my first ever sport when Stoke’s guests have been champions-to-be, Liverpool. My solely reminiscence of that event was the fun of standing in an enormous open terrace, typical of lots of the previous grounds, alongside my Dad, Grandad and Uncle.
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Crucially, I feel, not one of many menfolk in my household supported a selected staff and solely my Grandad usually attended video games. His allegiance was an unlikely cut up, to trendy eyes, between Stoke and particularly Stanley Matthews, a recent and idol of his and their native rivals Port Vale who he had backed fervently at Villa Park in an FA Cup semi-final defeat in 1954.
He missed no alternative to inform me how Vale had been robbed by a late penalty transformed by West Brom’s Potteries-born and former Vale participant Ronnie Allen.
I feel my Grandad will need to have perceived sufficient enthusiasm in me to take me alongside to the Cup sport and this time we have been positioned within the reverse finish of the bottom, the Boothen Finish.
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After I consider that day all I can see is the distant view of the open terrace the place I had beforehand stood. It struck my eyes and ears as an enormous mass of human power singing songs of affection and devotion for this staff I had barely heard of known as Sunderland.
The sheer noise and fervour of the supporters made an enormous impression on me (I recall nothing of the sport itself against this) and over the next weeks I started scanning the newspapers (particularly the sports activities finals, for readers of a sure age) for Sunderland’s outcomes.
My college was stuffed with Liverpool and Manchester United ‘followers’ together with just a few Stoke supporters and even fewer Port Vale stalwarts. Undoubtedly my adopted Mackem standing will need to have appeared very bizarre to all of them.
In truth, wanting again, I feel that was talked about often…
On reflection my newfound ardour, centring firmly on Sunderland but in addition soccer typically, served as an efficient coping mechanism for difficulties I used to be experiencing in my early life. I noticed the Lads play within the Midlands and North-West, lucky to have dad and mom, notably my Dad, who have been completely satisfied to ferry me to video games.
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Document retaining and compiling scrapbooks grew to become avid hobbies and Sunderland gamers grew to become my heroes to be mimicked after I was kicking a ball round.
Every time, after I was older, standing in amongst these packed SAFC away ends I felt that uncooked power and emotion I had seen with distant awe and marvel on that momentous day in Stoke half a century in the past.
14 February 1976 – FA Cup Spherical 5 – Stoke Metropolis 0 Sunderland 0
Stoke: Shilton, Marsh, Pejic, Mahoney, Smith, Bloor, Robertson, Greenhoff, Moores, Hudson, Salmons: unused sub:
Sunderland: Montgomery, Malone, Bolton, Towers, Clarke, Moncur, Kerr, Ashurst, Holden, Robson, Finney: unused sub:
Attendance: 41,176 (Stoke’s highest gate that season)
The replay was the next Wednesday at Roker with the Lads profitable 2-1 with 47,583 watching on. They misplaced the Quarter-Closing 0-1 to Crystal Palace in entrance of Roker’s penultimate 50,000+ crowd.
