If you were on your death bed ...

I'd say that was mine, for the football, the journey and last memories of close friends.
The cup final was a cracking weekend too, despite the result. My liver needed a year off but socially/for the memories it was worth it...and i didn't get a year off, maybe 3 days

 

I had to look up the date but 18th September 1999 - Derby 0 Sunderland 5 - cracking day from start to finish. Randomly stopped off in Barnsley on the way back and ended up staying in a B&B straight out of a Carry On film- who knew Barnsley was such a good night out - got back home the next morning to be told that my penance for my unscheduled stay over was to take herself out for Sunday lunch followed by bucket loads of wine with friends in the beer garden of my then local.

Pretty much the perfect weekend.

 

3rd May 1997. SAFC 3-0 Everton

I was a young lad at the back of the Fulwell end, when Chris Waddle smashed a free kick into the top corner in the last league game at Roker. Scenes, limbs, people were on the floor, the ****ing lot. When it calmed down after the goal, a bloke standing in front of us had a glowing red tab smouldering away in the back of his donkey jacket which we all found hilarious and didn't bother to tell him.

Me quarter of midget gems from the roker pie shop were all owa the floor. Happy Days!

 

We lost at Man U though in the league cup!!
I’m still struggling. Too many in the last 38 years to pick one! The one that’s screaming at me is the Defoe volley against the mags. But still not certain!!

 

As Defoe lined up to hit the ball me and my son both said out loud ...

... "Don't!"

 

Me too, nothing could or ever will eclipse those games unless (and only in my dream) Clough and Taylor are the management team.

 

1973 Sunderland v Manchester City 5th Round replay at Roker Park. Final score Sunderland 3 Man City 1. 2 goals from my little friend Billy Hughes and 1 from Vic Hallom (iirc). Magical night.

 

This is hard. The 1990 semi final is up there but I was too young to be on the drink. The semi final at old Trafford was amazing but I was in the Utd end so couldn't celebrate properly. I'm going to say my first ever game at Roker Park. It was a night match and we lost 2-1 but I cant forget the feeling when I first walked into the ground and seeing the pitch and floodlights. Magical. I would have been 9 I think.

 

I was in the fulwell as well. Didn't we leapfrog Millwall into top spot following that win?

 

The fa cup quarter final replay at Roker Park against Chelsea and THAT Gordon Armstrong header. The scenes at the final whistle, the only time I've ever ran onto the pitch.

 

24th November, 1979 roker park versus Bristol rovers first time I was allowed to go to sunderland on my own on the bus from darlo won 3-2

 

Wouldn’t be bothered would ask to be enrolled in the NUFC supporters club so when I went it was one of them dying and not one of us

 

Aye, but when have our best trips ever been about winning! Went down there with some mates, drinks on the train, load of drinks when we got down just a random pub crawl, laughs along the way.

I got far too pissed if I'm honest. Got really lucky because getting near the ground there was a policeman who said I wouldn't get in. Randomly I started crawling and said I was a police horse and police horses can't be drunk. Instead of lifting me (which would have made sense) he just rolled his eyes and let me go, my mates made sure I got in.

Then the game was about the most nervous thing I've ever experienced. Me being drunk didn't help but when they scored I knew we were on target for extra time but that we needed to score by the end of it or they'd win on away goals. When we scored it was just the best feeling, I didn't see a goal coming and when he shot I just thought it was easily getting saved. Jumping about hugging my mate screaming we're going to ****ing Wembley. When they scored when we were still celebrating it seemed like the most Sunderland thing ever. Thing is, I knew that at 1-0 we had to score, and for some reason when it went 2-1 I had in my head that meant we needed to score again, I forgot it made it dead level. So for a brief minute I thought we were out. Getting to penalties was a godsend!

We all know how they went, **** me you couldn't get a more nervous, crazy, and ultimately amazing shootout, and the scenes when we won (once half the fans had realised that it was over and there wasn't another penalty to come) were out of this world. Then it was off finding anywhere open that would serve us drink.

I remember ringing my mam after the match screaming about going to Wembley. She'd been checking the score on teletext and apparently at full time it said they'd gone through, so she thought I was on something stronger than drink until she checked again and started celebrating at the other end of the phone.

I love beating the mags, and the PDC 0-3 (the only one of the run of away wins I was at) was close, but somehow beating them always seems a bit small compared to actually getting to a final, having the chance to actually win something more than bragging rights. If I'd been at the 1-0 Johnson game it might be higher mind!

For me it was the whole day, the people I was with, the atmosphere from the Sunderland fans who were just everywhere, the fact that at 1 down you expect them to beat us, the crazy ending, the penalties. Even more so it was January 2014. My missus was pregnant and my son was due early March so I knew this would be one of the last away games with the lads for a while, and the last one with no responsibilities! I was determined to make the most of it, it was like signing off that part of my life and what a way to do it. Then I had Wembley just before he was born and that was class to.

I've had a few, hence rambling, but I ****ing love this club and all (well, most) who follow it. I only knew maybe 20 people in that away end, but everyone there helped make a memory that will last a lifetime for me and every one of them is my brothers and sisters. Right, bedtime!

 

This.
I missed Reading away in the cup run.
Man City home and away were my favourites pre Wembley.

 

Wow that’s got all the old memory’s flooding back. Would have to be the Early days for me 75 bolton first away game with my cousins 76 hull away half of Sunderland descended on hull 77 football was ****e but away game a we’re mental 78 notts county 2 days before Christmas thrown in a police van got let out after last train had left arrived home Christmas Eve old man not happy to say the least. 79 Rowell hatrick best away game ever But 73 cup final has to be game of my life time. 13 years old football was all that mattered cried my eyes out when we won

 

Brilliant replies from you, @sheepman and everyone else ...

... just what a Sunderland forum should be all about.

 

Love this thread

 

Was that the time when we also beat, nay hammered, WHU & WBA in the same week or was that another time?

 

Mine would be the 6-2 v Millwall in Jan 92.....but not because it was 6-2.

I worked offshore off Great Yarmouth at the time and a mate i worked with, who lived in Norwich, was a Millwall fan. We'd done our two weeks and came ashore on the friday, and travelled up to Washington...he was staying at mine for the weekend, and if truth be told, the wife wasn't best pleased as i'd been away for two weeks!! Anyway, a good mate of mine, a MLF, was a rep for Newcastle Breweries who had an executive box at Roker Park, and had done me a favour and had got us in the box for the day.....Newcastle Breweries were match sponsors. My offshore mate had no idea about this. We had a canny night out on the friday night, offshore mate could not believe how friendly everybody was.
Match day. Had a couple of pints in the Cherry Tree in Ayton and got a lift over to Roker Park from Paul Atkinson. Straight into the executive suite, free drinks....all going well. Offshore mate can best be described as gobsmacked.
First goal, Paul Hardyman. We were right behind it and knew it was in from the moment it left his boot. 1nil. Millwall equalise. A waitress came in asked the box for our half time drinks order. 1-1 at half time. Went in the lounge and there were our drinks, on a table, marked Newcastle Breweries. Brilliant.
Second half, race into a 5 - 1 lead, Millwall pull one back, 5-2. An SAFC official comes into the box and asks for our MOTM. Unanimous, Don Goodman. We get another goal, finishes 6 -2.
Into the executive lounge at full time, my Breweries mate gets to present the MOTM trophy to the Don. Offshore mate is well and truely impressed now....
He gets talking to Goodman, who tells him that Rioch had told the Millwall players to get straight on the bus and get a shower when they got home, though im sure one of the Millwall players was in the players lounge afterwards.

Later on that year my Breweries mate got me a ticket for the FA cup final through Cathy Kerr (Stan Flashman gave us Barnets allocation) and in 1993 was godfather to my son. A few years after this, my mate had a massive brain heamorrage (sp). He survived, but, and i really hate to say this, i kind of wish he hadn't. ****, that sounds awful written down. He is in a completely vegetative state, no memories of anything, cant speak, completely paralysed, "living" in a care home in Birtley. 20 odd years later, im still gutted, and it still breaks my heart.

My son is 27 on Tuesday, march 10th. He proposed to his girlfriend at the Trevi fountain last year, and have just bought a house together which will be ready in 2021. We went to the Checkatrade final last year, and on the way down on the train, i told him stories about my mate, his Godfather. I wish my mate could see him now.

**** me, this had been quite hard to write, but its the first time i have written it down. I would go back to that game, and tell my mate how much he meant to me, my family, and all his mates...i wouldn't even mind if we lost 6-2.