The campaign would have a relatively happy ending, Sunderland would finish 5th, but there was a worrying start.

That we drew our first league game at Roker Park on 14 august to Birmingham city wasn’t the problem, but the size of the crowd was. Only 9,749 bothered to turn up, a reflection of the previous awful campaign. Granted it also rained heavily that day.

It was a poor day all round as full back bobby Park broke his leg, a burgeoning career snuffed out at birth. In time he would share a testimonial with Ritchie Pitt against AZ '67 Alkmaar.

Defensively we were poor. In fact we conceded more than we scored. This was due to one or two heavy defeats, the 0 v 5 drubbing at Ayresome Park testimony to that.

A certain Joe Bolton was coming through the ranks and indeed the youth setup was producing the goods. It had taken a while for Alan Brown to get the conveyor belt going, but once in full flow there was no stopping it. It would produce dramatic results in May 1973, as we shall see.

For the first time since February 1967, Sunderland won an FA cup tie beating Sheffield Wednesday at Roker Park. We succumbed to Cardiff city in the next round after 3 games. Prior to the Wednesday win we had lost 9 successive cup ties, and indeed hadn’t won in the League Cup since October 1967. In the League cup it was another nightmare, beaten of Bristol Rovers at Eastville.

There was little evidence of what was to come in the 1972/73 season.

In June 1972 Sunderland once more entered the Anglo Italian Tournament. Whilst the competition hardly attracted huge interest, attendances again were small; we did perform better than previous. In a group that involved games against Both Atalanta and the Sardinians of Cagliari, for whom Italian legend Luigi Riva starred, Sunderland won 1, drew 2 and lost only once.