Page 64 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

lad next door spoke to me – he told me to keep the noise down.
We were drawn against Luton at home in the Quarter Final on March 17th and on paper this looked like a great draw as they were in the 2nd Division like us and we’d managed to avoid Leeds, Chelsea and Arsenal. The fifty-three thousand crowd, some of whom had been passed down over the heads of those in front like in the old days, saw Sunderland turn on the power in the second half and end up 2-0 winners, with Dave Watson getting his fourth goal of the campaign. Again I was in my room in London listening to occasional reports on the radio but soon I was to actually see one of our Cup games live.
In the semi-final we were drawn against Arsenal at Hillsborough and our Graham managed to get me a ticket. I felt lucky and a bit guilty to be going after missing the previous rounds but I’d certainly paid my dues, turning up for the majority of home games since my first, at the age of eight, in October 1962. Apart from promotion to Division One in 1964 this had been a pretty disappointing period for the team culminating in relegation in 1970. So I’d been through the bad times and I was looking forward to the good.
On Saturday 7th April Graham and I drove down from Sunderland to Sheffield with his mate Brian and it turned out to be one of the happiest days of my life. There were twenty- three thousand other Sunderland fans travelling with us and red and white scarves were flying from countless cars as we
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