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two ties and they were a very strong unit by now. Almost immediately Ritchie Pitt committed the most horrendous foul on Allan Clarke and we wondered afterwards whether he knew that he could get away with it ‘cos nobody would get sent off in the first minute of a Cup Final, would they? It was cloudy and there were intermittent showers that made the surface slippery.
During the first half an hour it was clear that we weren’t in awe of the mighty Leeds and there were chances at both ends. Then in the 31st minute it happened – thirty-one is a good number for me, being the number of the house I was born in and the number of my current home. Billy Hughes put a corner in and in a flash Ian Porterfield had brought it down and lashed it into the net. I was on my seat screaming and waving my arms in the air like most people around me. The goal was scored at the end where I was sitting so I got a great view of it and in the 65th minute I relished the heart- stopping moment when Monty made his incredible double save from Jones and Cherry. It was pure reflex stuff and I couldn’t believe that he’d managed to keep them both out at such a short distance.
Leeds pressurized us a great deal throughout that second half and I was looking at my watch every thirty seconds praying for the whistle while joining in the choruses of Blaydon Races that echoed around the stadium.
Finally that bloody whistle blew and the first thing I saw was Stokoe racing onto the pitch in his trilby, beige
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