It is the Golden Anniversary of May 5th, 1973. 50 years, eh? That amazing day in London when the Dutch band Focus recorded their ‘Live at the Rainbow’ album. I wasn’t there that evening when they came on stage at The Rainbow, but I was in a pub raucously celebrating Sunderland’s win over Leeds in the FA cup final.
As a young 15-year-old I had managed to be at all but the first of the cup games in 1973 that took them to Wembley. Most memorable for me was a classic Roker Park night when we beat Manchester City in a replay after holding them to a draw at Maine Road. The North Sea haar was blowing over the ground and the stadium was rocking under the floodlights. Vic Halom scored that night - what I think was the best goal I have ever seen. Maybe I got carried away with the atmosphere, maybe the fog clouded my view from the Fulwell. Or maybe it simply was the best goal ever. You can find a blurry YouTube video of that game – you should check it out and judge for yourself. Great memory of the big win in the semi-final too when we beat Arsenal at Hillsborough in Sheffield. What I remember about the first Sunderland goal (Halom again) is that it barely crept over the line - I do believe the collective inhalation of the Sunderland fans behind the goal was what pulled the ball over the goal line. The famous Bob Wilson was in goal for Arsenal that day and managed to hit his groin on the post at one point. We all thought that was very funny!