Tottenham Strikes Again: Thrilling 3-1 Victory Over Manchester United!

Sunderland’s humbling at Vale Park last week seems to have underlined just how poor the Lads have been in the FA Cup over recent years — yet it’s a competition that holds plenty of fond memories for the club, which for years saw the prize become the ‘Holy Grail’. League champions on multiple occasions and one of most influential names in the game, we were a force to be reckoned with in the early years of the sport and yet for some reason the FA Cup — created by a Sunderland man no less — somehow managed to keep eluding us after a string of semi-final appearances and a loss in the 1913 final. Mystified as to why the team kept failing, some supporters even believed there to be a travellers’ curse hanging over the Wearsiders, who would supposedly not win the cup until a ‘Scottish lassie’ became the Queen of England.

Not everyone took such talk seriously, but football fans can be a superstitious bunch and surely one or two sceptics would’ve raised an eyebrow when in December 1936, Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, ascended to the throne alongside her husband George VI. The Lads then began their latest tilt at the cup just a couple of weeks later, and a sixth round second replay that took place on this day was to be a major step towards finally bringing a successful end to the quest. Inseparable at the end of ninety minutes at Molineux and extra time at Roker Park, the teams were forced to settle the tie via a hotly anticipated Hillsborough rematch where seated tickets were sold out well in advance.

Supporters could still pay on the gate for terraced sections however, so there was a rare instance of poor weather actually being of assistance to those wanting to attend, with March snow putting many Wearside shipyards out of action and giving workers an unexpected day off. Arriving for duty as normal at 07:30 only to be told their shifts were cancelled, those without enough time to go home and change were happy simply to head straight to the train station in their heavy-duty work gear. There, they joined those already waiting eagerly for excursion services to Sheffield, mixing with the more stereotypically-attired match goers on the jam-packed platforms.

“Rosettes, knitted caps of red and white wool, red and white scarves, top hats painted with red and white stripes, were everywhere and there were more than a dozen ‘crakes’” , advised the 18:00 edition of the Sunderland Echo And Shipping Gazette that evening, whilst regular shouts of “Ha-way Gurney” had been heard in the booking hall when train tickets had first gone on sale in the morning. Also at the station waiting to travel to the game was Mrs Prior, wife of Col. J.