The Leeds And Sunderland Cup Final

A Memory of Wembley.

I watched so many cup finals on black and white television when I was a boy never dreaming of the day that I might actually be there. But it happened in 1973! Would you believe my neighbour was a long retired football referee and received two tickets for every cup final! I don't think he had refereed since the 1940's and yet he continued to get his tickets - small wonder that real football fans struggled to be there on the big day. Anyway he made my dream come true and sold me his tickets for an unbelievable face value price of just four pounds each so my wife Elizabeth and I were able to see the Cup Final. The touts were out in Olympic Way offering big money to buy tickets and Elizabeth thought this would be a good idea to finance a shopping expedition in the West End. No way!  I told her that the Cup Final was a magic occasion, part of her education and an event to remember for the rest of her life. And so it was in 1973 - a first division team beaten by the underdogs from Sunderland. Oh how I did enjoy that day thanks to my lovely football referee neighbour. By the way he didn't want to go as he was blind - yes, it's true!