Our family story of following the Lads begins on November 22 1952.
My paternal grandfather was from Burnley and was a Burnley supporter. Unfortunately I never met him as he died before I was born but I’m in the very fortunate position of still having my Dad around — in fine health and fitter than me, truth be told!
Burnley were playing at Roker Park and my grandfather took my dad, his nine-year old son, to watch the match. This was presumably to cement his love for Burnley but it didn’t work like that.
Sunderland won the game 2-1 and from that moment on my destiny was formed eighteen years before I was born. Tommy Wright and Willie Watson scored the Sunderland goals that day; the former a renowned Welsh international and the latter a legend at the club.
Watson played over two hundred games in red and white whilst juggling county cricket, England Test cricket and England international football call-ups. In the course of my research, I came upon an article by Kelvin Beattie that I urge you to read. Wonderful stuff!
My dad’s recollections of that November day in 1952 are of the hordes of supporters streaming to the ground, thousands all heading in the same direction and being swept along together. He mentions that upon entering the turnstile and going out into the open, he was taken aback by the sheer size of Roker Park.
The attendance was over 40,000. Burnley were a very good side at the time and on that day began a love for this club that spans over seven decades, three generations and counting.
Time moves on without pause and we arrive in March 1977.
I’m only six years old (nearly seven), so my memories of my first game are understandably lost in the haze of growing up. It’s a home game against West Ham and my dad is charged with amusing me for the day. I have vague recollections of being in the family enclosure but having been to Roker Park on more occasions than I can count over the years, I had to rely on my dad Ian to fill in the blanks.
He insists I was more interested in the half time Bovril than I was in the football and to this day the smell of it takes me back through the years. Sunderland won 6-0 that day and I assumed that was how it would always be, but it turns out that it doesn’t work like that, either.
If you’re allowed any regrets in life then maybe, as time moves on again and my own son attends his first game, it’s that I wasn’t actually there.
My eldest son Tom has never been bothered about football, as much as I tried. He prefers chasing a large peanut and trying to work out which way it will bounce. Between rugby and his talent for jiu-jitsu, I’m prepared to let it lie for obvious reasons.
His brother, on the other hand is a talented footballer and passionate Lads fan.
My mum and dad took Sam to the Stadium of Light as an eleventh birthday treat on 21 November 2009, so nearly fifty seven years to the day later than his own first game at Roker. To be fair, Mum has her share of Sunderland-related stories too — she didn’t have a choice, as he took her on a date for an evening kick off when they were still courting.
They travelled up for the weekend from Surrey, where we all now live.
The traffic on the M1 was a nightmare and roadworks all over the place meant the five-hour car journey took eight hours. A home game against Arsenal was among the highlights of the agenda, listed among other delights such as visiting friends and family.
Arsenal had a very talented team at the time.
Arsene Wenger had Cesc Fàbregas running the midfield and maybe we were fortunate that Robin van Persie was injured. Regardless, Sunderland ran out 1-0 winners on the day and that’s all we care about, with the game incredibly becoming the third home win of our trilogy of firsts.
Sam’s recollections of the walk to the stadium are of the sea of red and white as they walked from the car, getting more and more dense up to the point of turning the corner into the stadium car park. He describes it as “bees, swarming to the hive” and that analogy rings true for me too. The excitement of match day is incredible to me, even now and after all this time.
Once inside the stadium, they went down to the front to watch the players warm up, and seeing them all up close was a definite highlight. It was a tight game during which we spent a lot of time defending but ultimately came out of with three points, with a Darren Bent goal making the difference.
So, there we have it. First three first games, and three wins.
That’s exactly how it works, isn’t it?
