On this day in 1985, Sunderland progressed to their first ever League Cup Final by defeating Chelsea 5-2 on aggregate in the Semi-finals.
Our League Cup campaign had begun in late September, as we beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at
Roker Park in the Second Round First Leg courtesy of a brace within four minutes by Roger Wylde. We booked a spot in the next round via a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park in October.
After this we travelled away to Nottingham Forest, a goal from David Hodgson gave us the lead but the Reds were able to find an equaliser. In the replay it would take us until the 111th minute of extra time to score and win the game 1-0, Howard Gayle the goalscorer on this occasion.
In the Fourth Round Tottenham Hotspur travelled up to Wearside in a game that ended 0-0. This time around the replay was settled in regular time. Despite us going behind within the first 10 minutes, we orchestrated a fight back to win 2-1 with the goals coming from Clive Walker and Gordon Chisholm.
Walker would get on the scoresheet again in the Quarter Final, with us beating Watford away from home 1-0.
That setup this Semi-final two-legged clash between Sunderland and Chelsea.
We would do ourselves a massive favour in the First Leg at Roker Park, giving us a two goal cushion to travel away to Stamford Bridge with. Colin West scored one in both halves.
The starting XI from the First Leg would remain unchanged as we lined up like this:
Chris Turner
Barry Venison
Nick Pickering
Gary Bennett
Gordon Chisholm
Shaun Elliott
David Hodgson
Steve Berry
Colin West
Peter Daniel
Clive Walker
(as well as Ian Wallace on the bench)
David Speedie halved the deficit on aggregate in the 6th minute by putting away a penalty.
It would take us half an hour to reestablish a two goal lead. Walker dribbled well into the box and blasted the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
25 minutes into the second half, former Chelsea man Walker had his brace. He rolled the ball under goalkeeper Eddie Niedzwiecki to practically send us to the final, with us now leading 4-1 on aggregate.
This was unfortunately overshadowed by Chelsea hooligans invading the pitch. They spilled out of the stands in huge numbers, reportedly ripping out seats and one man was spotted running around with a chair in his hand. A steward was injured via objects being thrown and police had to use a stretcher as a shield. The police were forced to enter the pitch, which included the use of horses. Once the crowds had been cleared play resumed but another Chelsea fan ran onto the pitch to delay the affair even longer.
Walker had a hand in our third goal of the evening and fifth in the tie, crossing the ball to West. More fans entered the field of play as this happened but our man was still able to score.
Pat Nevin found a consolation for the home side with five minutes remaining but that wasn’t the end of the drama.
The Blues first goalscorer was dismissed for a terrible tackle on Shaun Elliott and Walker was very nearly struck by a Chelsea fan late on.
Violence dominated any talk of the game but Sunderland had still gotten to their first ever League Cup final by beating a team far higher up the league than them, breezing past them 5-2 on aggregate.
Norwich beat us at Wembley later on in the month in front of a crowd of 100,000 and the season took a turn for the worse towards the end as our already poor form dipped even further and we suffered relegation to the second tier.
