No pre-Wembley Sunderland AFC content binge would be complete without revisiting ‘Meanwhile back in Sunderland.’

For those who don’t know what I’m referencing, firstly, stop reading this article and search for it on Youtube immediately, two…it is a show that covers events in the town from 5am until 11pm on May 5th, 1973.

‘But Micky, I thought this was about us beating Wycombe three years ago?’ Well yes, all in good time.

As I sat down to watch it as part of my 2025 Wembley preparations, I was struck by two things, this was the first time I had watched it where we had won at Wembley in front of fans since the production of the show and since my last viewing, my Grandad had passed away.

This added two new layers of significance, as I watched the town become a sea of red and white scarves and rosettes.

On the day in question my Grandad was 41 years old and living in The Oaks, a short walk from the town centre, he was married to my Gran Janet, 36, They had four children, my Uncle Alan was the oldest aged 14, and my mam was seven years old.

Watching the footage was an emotional experience tinged with a sense of regret, just watching people going about their daily lives made me imagine him and my gran, very much alive and it made me curse myself for not asking them more about that fateful day.

Sure, I knew they’d all watched it in the front room, the television was still black and white and my Uncle Brian stotted his head off the mantlepiece following Porterfield’s winner, but why didn’t I know more?

Why had I never asked what they did on the morning of the cup final? Did they have red and white rosettes like everyone in an SR postcode seemed to, did my Grandad have a rare drink to toast the victory? Did he rush out and grab a copy of the Football Echo in the aftermath?

Suddenly I wanted to know everything about the day from my Gran and Grandad’s perspective from whether they had skimmed or semi skimmed milk on their cornflakes to their celebratory tipple of choice that night.

Come 2022, it had been 10 years since my Gran had passed away, my Grandad had recently celebrated his 90th birthday, my mam, as I’m sure she will be delighted for me to reveal to our readers, was 56 years old and Sunderland still hadn’t won at Wembley in front of fans since the days of ‘Meanwhile back in Sunderland.’

In that time we’d lost three play off finals, two League Cup finals, a Checkatrade Trophy Final and an FA Cup final, in the words of Michelle Barraclough on ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die, “why is it never us celebrating?”

To be fair we had all celebrated a Papa Johns Trophy win at Wembley, but we did so from the comfort of our living rooms due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

In the 49 intervening years, the kids playing football in the street before the 1973 cup final with Leeds, would likely have grandchildren by now, or at least be parents with grown up kids.

For the class of 2022, this wasn’t just about promotion back to the Championship, this was about banishing ghosts of Wembley visits past and turning ‘typical Sunderland’ from a negative connotation to a positive one.

In the build up, head coach Alex Neil dismissed the narrative and circus surrounding the self fulfilling prophecy of falling at the final hurdle.

His mood appeared to have rubbed off on the people of Wearside and we travelled to Wembley more in expectation than hope for once.

For a start, we knew we had some of the most talented players in the league, in Alex Pritchard, Ross Stewart, Partick Roberts and with the benefit of hindsight it seems scarcely credible that Jack Clarke started the game on the bench.

We also had the aforementioned Alex Neil, who may now be a pantomime villain for the way he left the club, but at the time he was exactly what we needed.

He was a man who held competing in League One with utter contempt and rightfully thought this was well below the level Sunderland should be competing at.

Under his stewardship, we had gone 15 games unbeaten prior to the final and overcame two intense semi final clashes with Sheffield Wednesday.

Another bonus that goes under the radar due to its ultimate lack of use was the presence of VAR, which usually strikes dread to the very core of most football fans, but on this occasion it was very much welcome from our standpoint.

In the away league fixture, Sunderland drew 3-3 with Wycombe where young goalkeeper Anthony Patterson was targeted with a shelling that would make the Luftwaffe blush, and at least one of their goals had a question mark over it.

It is not unusual for our fans to take over London and the surrounding areas over the Wembley weekend.

For a start we have the traditional pre-game Trafalgar Square party, where some bemused tourists will always enquire what we are celebrating and leave even more bemused when they are informed, ‘we’re playing tomorrow.’

But that weekend in 2022 hit differently, with Sunderland outnumbering the Wycombe fans by 2:1 inside the stadium and easily more than double that again in terms of fans who made the trip to London.

So this was manifest destiny, right? We couldn’t lose, could we?

After 12 minutes Elliot Embleton drove at the Wycombe defence and let fly from outside the area, his powerful shot was enough to evade David Stockdale and the lads were on their way.

At this point, I would be lying if I said the nerves didn’t kick in, rationally I knew we were the better team, had made a flying start and should go on to win. But I swiftly reminded myself that this was my fourth visit to Wembley and on the previous three occasions we had taken the lead and lost.

Despite our dominance we still led by just a single goal heading into the second half, and there was to be one more heart in mouth moment before we wrapped things up.

Bailey Wright, got caught underneath the ball, mistimed his jump and gave Sam Vokes a one on one with Anthony Patterson, but the young goalkeeper stood up to the task and produced an impressive save to preserve our lead.

Then, 11 minutes from time, Ross Stewart picked up the ball on the edge of the area, created a yard of space for himself and expertly found the bottom corner which caused complete and utter pandemonium around Wembley Stadium.

Bodies tumbled everywhere, family, friends and complete strangers hugged each other, pubs on Wearside erupted with noise and after 49 years, supporters celebrated a win at Wembley.

A few days later, I spoke to my Grandad about the match when I went to visit him and in a typically stoic, no nonsense man of his generation fashion he simply said: “well, it’s about time they didn’t something isn’t it?”

Sadly, he passed away just three months later but I will be forever grateful that he got to witness his beloved hometown team win at Wembley one more time. It may have been on telly from afar, but he witnessed it.

Throughout I have referenced my family not to bore you all with my SAFC backstory but to emphasise the beauty of the generational support we have.

Many of you reading this will have a similar story of a deep family connection with both Sunderland AFC and the City of Sunderland and at Wembley we will once again pause to remember those who are no longer with us our pride in our club will be even stronger.

This time three years ago, it finally was us celebrating and we now stand on the brink of a return to the Premier League.

This time, it can be us again.

Ha’way The Lads. ‘Til The End.