Sunderland Echo journalist's memories of a 1973 night shift, following the bus bringing the FA Cup home

The former Sunderland Echo journalist was on the press lorry that was just ahead of the team bus which brought the FA Cup home.

And as we continue our look at 1973, Rob – who worked for the Echo for more than 40 years until 2011 - becomes the latest person to share some superb memories.

‘The bus had started out at Belmont and cruised on to Houghton-le-Spring, where the fans started to line the streets.

But it wasn’t until the team bus arrived at the Board Inn that the players got a real taste of the chaotic crowds that reduced the bus progress to a snail’s pace and at times had to stop because of the sheer numbers of people crowding round.

‘Red and white everywhere you looked’

There were people on the flat roof of the extension at the Board Inn, up lamp-posts, on top of bus shelters, anywhere they could find a vantage point, dads with children on shoulders and mams with babes in arms – everywhere you looked there was red and white.

A posse of police motor-cycle riders formed a kind of arrowhead to the procession, parting the sea of people, as we went slowly up the bank towards the Bridle Path and when we reached the brow of the hill near the Holy Rosary Church we could see what lay ahead.

‘Thousands of people singing and chanting’

As a lad brought up on Thorney Close estate I knew this area well, but I had never seen the long Durham Road mile bank dual carriageway filled along the entire length with thousands of singing and chanting people of all ages.

When we eventually got to the Prospect Hotel, towards Humbledon, there were so many people at the junction it looked like we would have to stop.

There were lads up on the roof of the hotel, apparently dancing on the roof ridge and waving scarves, more people on top of bus shelters and up lamp-posts. People of all ages, were crowding round, cheering, singing and chanting as the players on the bus responded by hoisting the cup and waving their club colours – and slowly we inched along, past Humbledon and down the Bede bank.

At The Barnes junction, the crowds seemed to be impassable, but slowly our vehicles edged through the happy, cheering throng. As we went along Dunelm and Riversdale Terrace the crowds still filled the pavements and residents waved and cheered from upstairs windows, until we reached Burn Park.

‘Hospital patients waved their crutches’

At the edges of the park there were people up trees, waving from houses. Then as we reached the Royal Infirmary the cavalcade slowed even more to go past the hospital. On a flat roof at the side of the hospital there were patients in wheelchairs, some of them waving their wooden crutches as the Sunderland players waved back at them and continued to hoist the cup.

“When we reached Vine Place the bus was flanked on each side by a blue line of police, a couple of them on horses at the front of the bus. They were now needed more than ever to help the bus, and our lorry, nudge a way through the pressure of more and more people all trying to get a good view of The Lads with the cup.

‘People were hanging on to scaffolding poles’

“Then, as we turned into Fawcett Street there was a sharp intake of breath when we saw how the street was jam-packed by thousands of people. The crowds looked impassable at first and we heard an ear-bursting cacophony of joyful shouting, cheering, singing and chanting as we inched along.

“The old Sunderland Town Hall site was being redeveloped and Binns store was having repairs so there was a lot of scaffolding in the street. It was full of people waving and shouting. Some of them were hanging on to scaffolding poles 30-foot up from the ground. Others were sitting on top of huge wooden advertising hoardings. It was a miracle nobody was badly injured that night, especially in Fawcett Street.

“The crowds thinned a little bit across Wearmouth Bridge, but as we entered North Bridge Street and headed to the Wheat Sheaf, the raucous crowds grew bigger again and our entourage could barely squeeze through the delirious thousands on our way to Roker Park.

But again, the police motor bike outriders and the thin blue lines at each side of the bus kept the way open to squeeze through. They earned their pay that night as the daylight faded and street lamps started to light.

Roker Park scenes were ‘mind-boggling’

“There were even more police on duty when we finally reached a tumultuous packed Roker Park, but they were hardly needed except for crowd control. Everybody was just too joyfully happy to cause any trouble.

When the players got off their bedecked bus and went in to the floodlit stadium, we on the Press lorry got to follow them in. We saw and heard the same sights and sounds that The Lads experienced. It was mind-boggling.

‘A night I would never forget’

I had been part of the excited crowd at Roker football matches plenty of times over the years but never before had I followed the players on to the pitch to be greeted by so much ecstatic noise from thousands of Sunderland fans high on happiness.

After a while at the stadium, it was time to make my way home and then try my best to give Echo readers a good account of what had gone on that balmy Spring night when Sunderland brought the cup home – a night I would never forget and neither would the thousands of people who took part in it.”

Have you worked a night shift which was simply unbelievable? Email [email protected] to tell us more.