I know some of you lads and lasses area bit younger, so for the older farts, such as my Millfield self, and a couple of other souls,,,,,,,let me begin. MIGHTY LEEDS v lowly SUNDERLAND. On ITV Anglia.I was stationed at RAF Coningsby, Lincs,friday night, all the pundits gave points for and against,,,, Jackie charleton was one [ Leeds man also Ashington geordie ] the results, something like, Leeds one billion and sixty thousand, Sunderland wont turn up, so five points for the travelling fans on the day i was doing a karate demonstration, a green belt at the time, at the Newark and Notts county show, myself and kieth were holding two one inch boards, which the black belt was going to break, as the B Belt punched at two hundred miles an hour, a guy behind me with a Perdio type radio shouted " Sunderland have won the FA CUP" I turned to whisper to the geezer with the radio " is it true" never heard the reply, woke up on the grass, black eye, boards broken, with twelve new members, who thought they could be bruce lee`s. in the Coddington club that night, Jim the milk , who as you read was our milkman, ran a disco, on one side of the club , were Leeds/yorks/mag supporters, on the other side were Sunderland/conningsby/louth/Lincoln/bradford/liverpool/arsenal/man u/man c/tranmere rovers/ bristol city/rovers /southamptom/Carlisle/derby/darlington................and on and and on. After that unforgettable victory, SUNDERLAND bennifitted from companies in the usa, to buy the products our fathers and mothers made. ABOVE thirty million pounds came into Sunderlsnds infrastructure, all because eleven supposed losers beat eleven superstars, and the rest they say is history. in memorie of IAN PORTERFIELD. with great thanks, to MONTIE. the rest to many to mention, including the tea lady. and the stewards of the day. TOLD YA MIBE , SHOW ME YOURS. BIG GIT ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,KEEP AWAY.
I was there, I would have probably gotten on the telly before hand, but I was standing next to big Jack Watson with his Red and White handlebar moustache when he was getting interviewed before the match. I only came up to his chest at the time, my dear old Mum maintained she recognised the top of my head, when she spotted Jack. (Big Jack was the ex copper by the way.) I was 16 at the time and me and my best mate didn't get home till the Tuesday. Talk about a lost weekend.
Well I know where I was on the settee with my leg up with 22 stiches in my foot after cutting the pad off trying to catch a trout in the river near shotley bridge and my mate Ric was in sunderland general in plaster from the waste down after jumping off the town bridge ( near the town end ) when he got pissed after winning the the semis Eeh! I did laugh!
I was there, what a day, what a build up, great memories. I actually had the pleasure of meeting the Great Jimmy Montgomery just today as i took my old man and my son to the Legends Tour at the SOL, will post my thoughts later on but the man is a true gentleman and i would recommend any SAFC fan to go and do the Tour, absolutely fantastic. My biggest memory of the day in question was '**** me, this stadium is massive compared to Roker Park' but the atmopsphere generated by our fans was tremendous and as a 13 year old at the time it was like shear bliss, don't know to this day how many fans we took down there b ut it seemed like 75% of Wembley were Red & White.
I was sat in the third row, up near the Leeds end, wishing I could be down the other end in the middle of "the Fulwell". Had three Player's No Ten to last me the second half, so no finger nails left at the end. 19 years old - I remember thinking "got to remember this day for the rest of my life" - I have. Walking down Wembley Way after the match making 1 - nil signs to all the Leeds coaches - ****ing great. And we weren't known so much as Mackems then, so the chant of "Geordie here geordie there geordie not allowed to swear" was deafening. I doubt I'll ever experience the like again.
MW - I was there too, just one year older than you, down on the bus from the pub with me dad, all pissed as farts at midnight and getting in early morning. My one abiding memory before we kicked off (apart from the game - oh ecstasy) is standing by the b***** huge crane ITV had at one end. Like you I remember a sea of red n' white, and the crane had those orangey/red and white hazard stripes all the way up the extendable arm. Two Leeds fans were right next to me, and me looking up to them with their stunned faces at the hordes of Sunderland fans around, one of them slowly turned to the crane, his head leisurely panning up the length of the arm with the stripes extending to the heavens and then as leisurely panning down again to say to his mate in a broad Yorkshire accent "Fookin Hell - even the bludy cranes red n white" ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS I never had a doubt we were going to win, but at that moment I realised that even the Leeds fans knew we were going to!!
Aye that was some day that was. I was at Wembley and towards the end a cardboard red and white top hat come flying towards me. I grabbed it and still have it up in the loft. Anyway that night while waiting for the train back home we went into a pub. Fans from other clubs were coming in and congratulating us on the win, especially as it was the much hated Leeds we had beaten, and buying the drinks. Leeds fans kept coming in an throwing coins into my newly acquired hat. So at the end of the evening not only was I celebrating our win but had more money that I started with
I was there. I was only 12 at the time, but I'll never forget my Pink C voucher which got me a ticket... I was offered a hundred pound for my one pound standing ticket a few days before the game, and my parents, who were not that wealthy, gained my life-long respect for not forcing me to sell it...
I remember buying a burger from one of the roadside vendors, it wasn't cooked and I took it back, he took a swing at me and told me to piss off. Some of the "bigger" lads spread him and his stall all over the road.
I was there...Remember the vouchers for the semi final....A Q got you a ticket...I had a Q...so I had a ticket...my cousin from Penshaw had an O....which I made into a Q with artists ink....I queued with the illegal Q at the Fulwell end...chickened out at the last minute and finally deposited both in a crushed Roker End and we both went We met for the game at Wembley... the most excrutiating game Ive ever watched save for Porters goal....Richie Pitt clattering Clarke and Dick Malone on his bike down the wing in the second half ....Grown men in tears on the way out... Mackems Rule!!!! Ive just looked up and youre off about grub again!!!!!....Still funny tho....youve got a way with words....(I kna`....yeve got awaywith them for years...........!)
My one abiding memory is of the reactions after the match, walking back down Wembley Way with all the leeds fans saluting us, as if to say 'well done' and i can't remember seeing any bother anywhere. Atmosphere will stick with me forever.
i was a very pissed off supporter. after not missing a game home or away for over 2 years, going to the semi, then failed to get a ticket for the final. i can tell you it really upset me at the time but luckily my mate gaz's dad had just bought a colour telly.
Thinking that I may be lucky to get a ticket the more I had I started taking my cousin to the games that vouchers were issued and ended up with 5 'winning' tickets. I obviously kept one for myself, gave my cousin 1 and gave the other three to guys I knew were regulars but hadn't got their tickets drawn. The thing was my cousin broke his leg playing football on the Thursday before the final so he gave his ticket to another Sunderland fan. Some of the best times, apart from the game, were the travelling down by train with all the eagerness and anticipation and then the celebration on the train journey home.
I wasn't there so my story has nothing on the previous ones. Even so, I did my bit for Sunderland AFC. I had just moved to Paris to play football for Paris UC (nowt flash, played in something equivalent of the Wearside League at the time on a pitch only slightly worse than the King George V playing fields in Pennywell). When I arrived in the summer of 1972 absolutely nobody had heard of Sunderland (for them, English football was Leeds, Arsenal and Man City, to name but a - relevant - few) so I gave them an incessant education into where real football was played. Needless to say, I had twenty or so sophisticated Parisians following our incredible progress through the cup rounds. In fact, we very soon forgot our own performances in the league, and training sessions became rundowns on the latest news concerning the match in the next round. I remember being on the Champs-Elysées (exotic, oui?) with five or six team-mates listening to the semi-final on a transistor radio, all shouting "awé ze ladz". Charlie George made us sweat that day. We all watched the final at the club chairman's house. I'd made a replica of the FA Cup with red and white ribbons on it and set it on top of the telly and the furniture was draped with anything and everything red-and-white. What a day. Soon-dare-lond was firmly put on the European map. I don't remember the celebrations - I must have been in another dimension - but I remember we won our match the next day. Just want to add that the Cup Final was always shown on French TV until the following year when Keegan's Liverpool ridiculed McDonald's Newcastle. The spectacle was so bad, they didn't show another FA Cup Final but did I care? I'd lived through the only one that mattered. Thanks for helping me bring back the memory.
At Wembley with my pregnant wife to see the Final. It's my son's proud boast that he was there when we won the Cup even though he was minus six months old!
I was living in Coventry at the time, age 17, decided at 10pm previous night to hitch down to Wembly, no ticket but a weeks wages in my pocket (ã13) hoping to meet a tout. Two lifts got me to the M1 Watford Gap services. Stood at the exit waving my red n white scarf, got a lift very quickly with 3 fans, father and two teenage sons, they got me all the way to Wembly and helped me find a tout and buy my ticket ã11, best ã11 I've ever spent in my life. Said goodbye to my helpers, don't know if I ever knew their names, but can't remember but thanks again. Behind the goal where we scored, delirious, hoarse from cheering. Afterwards hitched back to Coventry in 2 lifts, got back in time to watch it on telly that evening, most of the day is just a blur 9never had a drop of alcohol) but it makes me smile everytime I remember what I can of it!
