sport news FAN VIEW: Today will be my eighth trip to Wembley with Sunderland but I've yet ... trends now
I remember my dad arriving back home from Wembley after our historic FA Cup win over Leeds in 1973. Seven-year-old me was still struggling to deal with not having been there.
'Don't worry son,' he said. 'In your lifetime, you'll see Sunderland win at Wembley again.'
That was 49 years ago and I'm still waiting.
Sunderland's 1973 FA Cup Final triumph over Leeds United was their last win at Wembley in front of fans. They did win the EFL Trophy 1-0 against Tranmere last season but no one could go
My dad passed away in 2020 so he didn't see last season's 1-0 EFL Trophy victory over Tranmere.
Lockdown meant most supporters only saw it on TV.
So those seven Wembley defeats - from Gordon Chisholm's deflected own goal in 1985, to Charlton's injury-time winner in 2019 - still rankle.
In truth I reckon we never really looked like winning any of them – although the astonishing 4-4 draw and 7-6 penalty defeat to Charlton in 1998 was closer than most.
But this time it feels different. Not least because I won't be on a bus that breaks down just outside of Darlington. (Carney's Coaches, March 1985. I still have the ticket.)
We're going down to Wembley undefeated in 15 matches. The only game we've lost since Alex Neil became manager was back in February, at Milton Keynes.
Since then, he's made us more like him: tough, gritty, unsmiling.
When he was appointed to replace Lee Johnson, I wasn't sure. My head had been turned by Roy Keane and in the early days it seemed to me that half the East Stand (at the Stadium of Light) agreed.
But looking back, giving the job to Neil was a Kyril Louis-Dreyfus master stroke.
Even
