With Sunderland stepping out onto the hallowed Wembley turf for their first FA Cup Final since their historic triumph in 1973, the squad of 1991-92 had an opportunity to make history of their own. Fighting against relegation in the old Second Division, the Black Cats took on a Liverpool side that finished runners-up in the First Division in 1990/91.
Bruce Grobelaar, Ian Rush, Jan Molby and Steve McManaman were among some of the stars of Graeme Souness' star studded Liverpool side - the odds were certainly stacked against Sunderland, but the underdogs gave a good account of themselves.
We Are Sunderland spoke with a quartet of Black Cats icons; Kevin Ball, Gary Bennett, Gordon Armstrong and Brian Atkinson, who've recalled that memorable FA Cup run, as we approach its 32nd anniversary on May 28th.
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The early 90's were a time of turmoil and despair on Wearside as Sunderland were relegated from the top flight of English football in 1990-91. Despite a promising start to the 1991-92 campaign, the Black Cats' hopes of returning to the old First Division had faded by Christmas.
With Sunderland struggling near the foot of the table, Marco Gabbiadini departed the club, and back-to-back defeats against Tranmere Rovers and Oxford United saw Denis Smith given the sack on December 30. His former assistant, Malcolm Crosby, took over the reins the same day. A 2-0 win over Barnsley handed Crosby an ideal start in the dugout, but it was the FA Cup win over Port Vale that kick started a historical cup run for the club.
The Wearsiders were drawn at home to fellow Second Division side Port Vale - one of their relegation rivals at the time - but comfortably despatched the Valiants at Roker Park.
"It was massive for me because I was in and around the squad with Denis Smith," said Brian Atkinson as he reflects back on the opening round of the cup and Crosby's appointment. "Malcolm Crosby was my youth team manager and he got the job. I think it was around the Port Vale game and he put me in.
"To be fair I never looked back that season. He showed a lot of faith in me so he was massive. It was probably as well as I did for Sunderland during that year."
Team-mate Gordon Armstrong set Atkinson up for the first goal of their FA Cup, flashing a cross towards the front-post - a partnership that bore fruit throughout each round of the competition.
"It was fantastic," Armstrong said as he reminisced about the run to the final. "I can remember most of it to be fair. Brian scored the first goal at home to Port Vale, I crossed it and there was some great results along the way.
"Atky was as good a young player as there was at the time and probably should have done better. There was a few bits and bobs that held him back – injuries and what not. I say that to other people, not that I’d want to say it in front of him but he was a very, very good player."
Peter Davenport and John Byrne would get themselves on the scoresheet to wrap up a comfortable 3-0 win and set up an away trip to Oxford United in the Fourth Round.
Byrne and Atkinson again found themselves on the scoresheet, with Paul Hardyman adding a third as Sunderland raced to a 3-0 lead. The hosts brought it back to 3-2 but Crosby's side held out for another win over a fellow second tier side.
West Ham United - a First Division side - next up for Crosby's men in the Fifth Round.
"Is it a welcome distraction?" Kevin Ball asked as he takes stock looking back on a memorable cup run. "I’m not sure. I suppose. It was something that took you away from the league at the time. As each game came along, do you think you’re going to get to the final? Who knows.
"It’s a funny thing to look back on so many years on because we were fighting relegation so to speak. I’d probably say it was [a welcome distraction]. All of a sudden, it was we’re in or we’re out in this game. It wasn’t a case of these three points mean this or anything like that. I wouldn’t like to say 100 per cent.
"I can only speak as I think now, not as I felt then. You probably just thought it’s another game and you’ve got to win it. Would the pressures of the league contradict or impact how you played because you were worried about the points? With the FA Cup, it’s who have we got now? It’s quite interesting and truthfully I couldn’t answer."
John Byrne continued his impressive run of form in the FA Cup scoring in a 1-1 draw with the Hammers at Roker Park, before scoring a brace in the replay in a 3-2 win at the Boleyn Ground. Sunderland had pulled off one of the shocks of the Fifth Round.
"West Ham and Chelsea were probably the two that everybody remembers," Armstrong said. A 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge teed up one of the most memorable games in Roker Park history.
"Beating West Ham over the two games, drawing at home and then going there and winning, you believe you can beat anyone," he added. "We had bits and bobs of luck along the way. I think Chelsea should have beaten us at Stamford Bridge.
"They were the better team for most of the game but Byrney knicked an equaliser in the last few minutes and that was huge for us. It was a great game coming back [to Roker Park]."
The visitors were given the whole of the Roker End, with 26,039 crammed into the ground for a raucous night under the floodlights. Paul Elliott, Vinnie Jones, Andy Townsend, Denis Wise and Tony Cascarino were among the starting figures for Chelsea that night. To this day, Armstrong still rues the decision to rule out his goal after 15 minutes - which was disallowed for a supposed offside - fortunately for the Black Cats, Peter Davenport handed Sunderland the lead midway through the first-half.
Despite their poor run in the league, Sunderland had plenty of hope in the FA Cup, Tony Norman epitomising that in between the sticks for the Black Cats. Not deterred by Wise's equaliser with just five minutes of normal time remaining, Crosby's side pushed for a winner.
A corner at the Roker End in the dying minutes of the game. Surely they couldn't? Up stepped Atkinson, with tired legs, to land a perfect corner on Armstrong's head to put Sunderland into the semi-final.
"I think everybody remembers it," Armstrong said looking back on that night under the lights. "People always say Roker Park on a night time game was a special place and it was. If you had a full house, it was special and I’m not just saying that because I supported them as a kid and had been to loads of games.
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"Night games are just special under the lights. It was a tremendous atmosphere and a hell of a game to be fair. It went both ends, Tony Norman was outstanding in net and we had chances. I had one disallowed in the first-half which I saw on Match of The Day afterwards and it shouldn’t have been disallowed!
"It was a hell of a game. For them to equalise with five or six minutes to go and then us to go up the other end and get the winner, it was a magnificent night. The goal – I have to thank Brian for it. It was a hell of a corner. I don’t know if he remembers but I told him to do it! We were done.
"He was going over to the corner and it was amazing that he crossed it perfectly, the header goes in and flies in the corner. Chelsea were all at that end – the Roker End – and you see the silence. A complete comparison to our end which was going nuts. When we win 2-1, everyone running on the pitch was class."
"We’d talked about it before and at the time it was ‘don’t be daft'," Atkinson added when asked about the build-up to the corner. "It was windy, the last minute and I was absolutely done. I’d even said to them ‘I can’t take it I won’t be able to reach’ and he gave me a bit [of stick].
"Then he [Armstrong] runs over and if you look at the video, I’m on the bottom when everybody piles on and I’ve got cramp in both hamstrings. Both of my feet are pointing up, I’m shouting ‘Get off’ and that’s one of my memories. I cramped up! You’ll never forget about it. Every year on social media it comes up. People think it’s the only thing I’ve ever done in football take that corner. It was iconic."
Sunderland legend Gary Bennett also recalls that night like it was yesterday, remembering the Roker Roar spurring them over the line. "You’ve got to taste it or feel that atmosphere," he said. "Playing under the floodlights at Roker Park was unique. It was fantastic, especially the night games and you talk about the Roker Roar.
"It gave us an edge. You talk about experiences and you’ve had to have experienced it as a player, even as a supporter. To be at Roker Park in a night game, in a cup game as well, the atmosphere was electric."
Just as he did in the Quarter-Final, it was Atkinson who was the provider for Sunderland when they needed a moment of magic. The semi-final itself was a poor game in comparison to the end-to-end thriller at Roker Park in the previous round.
His cross from the right found Byrne in the middle, planting his header into the back of the net - his seventh in the competition - ensuring he maintained his record of scoring in every round of the cup.
Sunderland were in the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1973.
"We had a great team spirit which is huge when you’re going on a cup run," Bennett said. "There’s a togetherness and not just the players, but supporters as well. Sometimes you have that feeling in your blood. Especially at Sunderland, the FA Cup is special."
Crosby was given the job permanently heading into the FA Cup Final and Ball still recalls the preparation leading up to Wembley showpiece. "We had history because when I came to the club he was running the hostel and I stayed there a few times and got to know him personally, from my point of view it was great," the former Sunderland captain said when asked about Crosby taking over the reins.
"What you had with Crozza and his family, like I received when I first moved up, was real warmth and they’re genuine people. That’s what you got with him and what he was very, very good at was man management.
"Knowing how to speak to players, look after them, the actual whole surrounding of the cup run was fun. When we got to Wembley the way he planned the week for us was absolutely magnificent. We couldn’t have gone into the final in a better shape physically or mentally. The whole treats he had planned sort of took your mind off it.
"Not the importance of the final because we knew that, but the pressures that can be associated with wanting to win a final. He allowed us to enjoy the build-up to it which I thought was a fantastic piece of man management."
Liverpool their opponents.
"You’re never going into any game thinking you’re going to lose," Armstrong said. "That’s not the way you should think. You never think like that but we knew they were a top team and that it was going to be tough. They had lots of experience playing at that sort of level playing in those types of games but we had a chance.
"Byrney had a chance and we played quite well first-half. I’ve never watched the game back, but a few people have said that we played as good as them first-half, but second half we faded away and the times I’ve played at Wembley – I hate the bloody thing. It’s like playing on a sponge. I hated it. I felt like I couldn’t run on it. We were second best in the second half and they deserved to win to be fair, they were the better side."
It's a sentiment that's echoed by the rest of his Sunderland team-mates.
"They’re not happy memories," Bennett admits. "Nobody wants to get beat in the final, or the semi-final for that matter. You can look at the positives and the negatives. We got to the final. We fancied ourselves on the day against Liverpool.
"They weren’t having the best of times. We had a striker in form in Byrne who scored in every single round. We thought we could get a result. We had a couple of opportunities and so did he. Unfortunately, goals change games. It didn’t go in and they come out after half-time and score. That changed everything."
"I spoke to a player who was playing in a cup final, a player that we’d coached," Ball said. "I said ‘Remember, nobody remembers a runner up.’ I asked if they knew I had a runners up medal, and they said ‘no’. There you go. I think that saying, 'nobody remembers the bridesmaid' and that was us in the 1992 FA Cup Final because it’s not really been spoken about that much.
"When you really consider the achievement of the way our league season was going, a change of managers and things like that, it was probably an unbelievable achievement. To go all the way – as we did – and then for 45 minutes to still be well in it, and lose a goal just after half-time, then really second-half they played keep ball and we couldn’t get the thing off them.
"It was a shame. But I think if I’m being brutally honest, I think people have forgotten about it. When I think about it, I look and think what an achievement that was. When you consider there aren’t many people who have played in a cup final. It was a fantastic achievement, but I think it’s probably something we as a club have forgotten about as well if I’m honest."
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Sunderland reached the semi-final in the FA Cup back in 2004, but have not reached the final of the competition since that day in 1992. An afternoon where they didn't get the result they craved, but memories so many still treasure.
Changes to the FA Cup will see replays scrapped from the First Round of the competition - a move that means we'll not see the likes of that historic night at Roker Park against Chelsea again. The replays against the two London sides en route to the final, remain memorable nights in the minds of Black Cats supporters.
The decision to scrap replays has come under fire from almost every corner of the English game, a decision Bennett feels has no thought for clubs further down the pyramid.
"I think the FA Cup is a distraction for anyone with its popularity," he said. "Everybody looks forward to the FA Cup from the early rounds, Non-League clubs trying to get to that third round and we look at it as well. When you get into that third round you’re looking at who you’re playing, are you at home? Hopefully you want a cup run.
Again, it’s the bigger clubs that are making these decisions. From what you’re seeing online, the smaller clubs had no say in it, in regards to what they’d like to happen. I think for some of the smaller clubs, it’s where they hope they’re going on a cup run and draw one of the big teams at their venue. It’s one way of them making some income which will hopefully last them for the rest of the season, and maybe the year after.
The former players were speaking at the launch of a Sunderland limited edition bottle of Jameson whiskey. Partnering with Classic Football Shirts, the bottle features Sunderland's 1992 away shirt, paying homage to Sunderland's iconic cup final season.
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