Page 113 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

I pondered the problem in my room as I quaffed orange-juice – the hotel gave me a large daily ration of it - and I rang my Mam in Sunderland and she said she’d video it for me and send me all the newspaper cuttings. In the end there was nothing else for it so I threw myself at the mercy of the B.B.C. World Service.
As I described in the last chapter I’d stopped going to the match in the mid-1980’s for a combination of reasons, I still had a passion for the team deep down and had got increasingly excited as our 1992 cup-run advanced. In the 3rd Round we’d beaten Port Vale at home 3-0 with Atkinson, Davenport and Byrne scoring for us and in the next round we beat Oxford away 3-2 with Atkinson and Byrne scoring again as well as Hardyman. In the 5th Round we played West Ham at home and managed a 1-1- draw with Byrne netting once more and in the thrilling replay we beat them 3-2. After we’d taken a 2-0 lead in the first-half, with Byrne getting both, they fought back to make it 2-2 before Rush scored the winner about ten minutes from time. I was listening to snippets about the match on Radio 5 as the main commentary was the Liverpool v Ipswich game and then headed to my local, the Railway Tavern in Latimer Road W10, to watch the Jim McCarty Band and celebrate.
On 9th March we played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and extra spice was added to the tie as Ian Porterfield was manager of Chelsea at the time. We got a 1-1 draw with Byrne scoring, of course, to bring them back to Roker Park.
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