47 years ago today Sunderland win the FA Cup against Leeds Utd

50 Years Ago Today

May 05 1973 – Sunderland 1 Leeds United 0

Fifty Years ………

That’s a long time! I write about SAFC most days, with a lack of success in the current, I’ve been doing a lot of looking back. Most reminiscing is fairly recent, (the camera phone age etc), the reality is 1973 is not on my radar. Whilst there’s loads better qualified to reminisce than me, I’ve got nowt better to do, so thought I’d acknowledge the day, (as always no need to read, share, follow, retweet etc)

47 years ago today FA Cup Final Sunderland 1 Leeds Utd 0 — 15 pence!!!

The FA Cup Final

We are saturated with live TV football nowadays, growing up in the 70s and 80s – Cup Final Day was The Big One….. a whole day of football on the TV…..Celebrity Fan Interviews, Buses Arriving, Player Interviews, A Special Version of Question of Sport…..this was as good as it got.

We had 3 channels and 2 of them showed the cup final all day! Was never quite sure why ITV always had the colours so bright, so that it looked like the game was live from the Amazon Rainforest? The FA Cup has lost some of its magic, due to it becoming secondary to many teams ambitions and financial desires etc, but it was The game back in the day.

I don’t dislike ‘The Arch’, and Wembley is now a much better experience, but seeing ‘Seeing The Twin Towers…..’

Leeds United FC

They’re not my favourite team of the modern age. Rewind to this day 50 years ago they were The a Greatest Team In The Land. Football has changed, 50 years ago it was very different from how it is now.

Leeds United were a truly great team, a Northern Powerhouse – the current climate sees loads of us dealing with loss, the ages of the 22 players involved in the 1973 Cup Final makes this even more poignant, as so many of them have sadly departed.

Leeds were led by Don Revie, (740 games managed), in Charlton, Bremner, Reaney, Hunter, Madeley and Lorimer, they had 6 of the starting 11 who made over 700 appearances for the club! We all know it was a different age, but a starting 11 with combined appearances of 6699 between them and led by a man who would manage them 740 times – that’s just bonkers to imagine? They were a great team – needless to say Sunderland went into the game as huge underdogs.

Whilst I’m not here to write nice things about Leeds, it’s important and relevant to put into context how much they were expected not only to win the game, but probably to hammer us.

3pm Wembley Stadium….

As they say……The Rest is History

Past Glories……

I can only imagine how good this day 50 years ago must have been. Like many others I’ve been to Wembley plenty to see Sunderland – it’s a horrible place for losers, thankfully we have at last buried that hoodoo.
So whilst not able to write anything about 1973 that hasn’t been said before, it’s better than my own SAFC Wembley Memories