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Earliest SAFC Memory

P

pilar of herc

Central Defender
I remember watching the cup final on TV as a very young child in 73 but not knowing much about it. I remember the open top parade better. The first match I can vividly remember from start to finish was when we beat West Ham 2-0 to get promoted in 1980. That was a special night but yesterday topped it.
 

I vividly remember as a 9-year old going to Roker Park with my grandfather to see us beat "dirty Leeds" 2-0 in January 1966. I stood on a "cracket", as my grandfather called it, in front of the pylon at the right of the Roker End as you faced the pitch (the opposite side to the scoreboard). We got picked up in Birtley, where he lived, by a carful of his mates, all old blokes (and now I'm one!). One of them kept saying things like "these buggers are going to be hard to beat", only to be hauled up for language in front of a kid by everybody else! How sedate that seems now!

Anyway, that was me hooked for life. Next few games I went to we beat Chelsea 2-0, Everton 2-0 and Blackpool 4-0 (Neil Martin hattrick), so then I asked my grandfather "What happens if the other team scores?". Enter Leicester City - I wish I hadn't asked - as they ran out 3-2 winners! I got plenty of exposure to goals against over the years, especially at Watford!
 
'55 -ish. Standing in the Fulwell End with my father and uncles because someone famous was playing. Finney? I just kept thinking "how long do we have to stand here?" 😄
 
My dad taking me to the shop to get the football echo after we beat Gillingham 2-1 in the third division. Bennett scored.
 
Cup parade and being on the town bridge when the bus went past. Earliest memory actually watching them play was a 0-0 v Oxford late 1973 I think. Played on the floodlight in the Fulwell/Main stand corner a lot.
 
Sitting on the Roker End in August’67/68 watching us play in the hot sun.
I remember Gordon Harris going up for a header and the sweat coming bouncing off his head!
Funny the things you remember; can’t remember the opposition or the result, just the sweat off GH’s header! 🤣🤣
 
At home v Coventry... 1978? I remember it being a draw but we lost 1-0. I stood on a step hanging from the fence at the front of the main stand paddock- fulwell end. Then, next game we went on THE run of wins that nearly saved us...
 
Seeing derek Forster make his debut as a GK’s in 1964, he hadnt turned 16 at the time
It was my first ever game I attended by myself
I was 10 yo
 
Smartie said:
Used to go in for the last 20 minutes when they’d open the gates as a 8 year old. ‘76-77. Sneaked in under people’s legs a few times too.
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Earliest memory is going in last 10 minutes I was only 5 so 1961 just amazed at the crowd the crush and the smells, today/yesterday is a memory that will never be forgotten HTL
 
Early in the 1972-73 season , Alan Brown was manager , Sunderland wearing white shorts, Jimmy Hamilton coming as sub ,with my dad and granda in the Roker End near the scoreboard . Can’t remember the opposition or score!
 
First game, Juventus pre-season friendly in 2007. I was 11 playing for Ryhope CW and we were standing on each of the turnstiles that day with buckets collecting spare change for some fundraiser. Seats were all the way at the back of the west stand but I still remember it like it was yesterday

Now we might actually meet them in Europe next season! :lol:
 
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pilar of herc said:
I remember watching the cup final on TV as a very young child in 73 but not knowing much about it. I remember the open top parade better. The first match I can vividly remember from start to finish was when we beat West Ham 2-0 to get promoted in 1980. That was a special night but yesterday topped it.
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My first football memory is bursting into tears when Milburn scored in about the 5 minute 0f a Cup final and a shitty little flat full of mackems erupted. All of them red and white.
 
BNM said:
Sitting on the Roker End in August’67/68 watching us play in the hot sun.
I remember Gordon Harris going up for a header and the sweat coming bouncing off his head!
Funny the things you remember; can’t remember the opposition or the result, just the sweat off GH’s header! 🤣🤣
Click to expand...

Sitting ?
 
Don't actually remember too much about my first match - Wolves on Good Friday 1965. I remember we scored after 2mins and lost 2-1. Bloody typical. I remember more about my first game the following season. A night match against Sheffield United, which was also Jim Baxter's home debut. I remember seeing the lights from where we parked up near Roker Baths Road, getting into the ground and seeing how impossibly green the pitch was under the lights. The game itself was a Slim Jim masterclass. We won 4-1 with Jim getting 2, while spraying passed around in a way that only Enzo has got close to since.
 
Earliest memory was on standing in a doorway just over the sunderland sid e of the bridge with my mam..would have been six...waiting for dad coming from the match. Thousands passing looking miserable. He finally met us. we'd been beaten by Chelsea 0-1 at the end of the 62-63 season and ended our promotion hopes.

Not sure if why beating chelsea is always sweet or just because they are such an odious club
 
pilar of herc said:
I remember watching the cup final on TV as a very young child in 73 but not knowing much about it. I remember the open top parade better. The first match I can vividly remember from start to finish was when we beat West Ham 2-0 to get promoted in 1980. That was a special night but yesterday topped it.
Click to expand...
Recall as a nine year old going down to Roker with my mum one Sunday morning. Dad was at work and he’d asked her to go down to queue for him a ticket for our FA Cup quarter final game at Old Trafford the following week.

Hordes of people were there and mum not only got his ticket, but totally surprised me by getting one for me too. Not sure whether that additional purchase had been approved by dad mind, but he didn’t appear to be too hacked off. Indeed he later told me he’d decided that was to be my first game.

As a young boy who’d never at that time been further south than Durham, the day was a massive adventure. Football Special train the lot.

I have vivid memories of the game itself. Had a great view (we were standing on a side terrace level with the penalty area at the scoreboard end of the ground) and as a second division side put in a fantastic performance. Two late goals salvaging a 3:3 draw for United after Montgomery was injured.

Dad picked me up from school in Wardley to go the replay, but we couldn’t get anywhere near the ground that night so we had to rely on Tyne Tees updates when we got home.

I was hooked. Dad chose my introduction to Sunderland really well.

Sitting here thinking about him this morning. He’d be absolutely over the moon.
 
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