Fantastic cine clip from the countdown to the ‘73 Cup Final

Rare film footage has emerged of Sunderland fans in full FA Cup fever in 1973.

Some of the young fans who marched through the streets of Sunderland as the Cup final approached. | North East Film Archive

placeholder image — Some of the young fans who marched through the streets of Sunderland as the Cup final approached. | North East Film Archive

As fans wait today to find out who the Black Cats will be playing in the Europa League, the North East Film Archive shared a fantastic cine clip from the countdown to the ‘73 Cup Final - the last time we dared to dream of Europe and it actually came true.

It shows a crowd of children and an older man all wearing red and white as they march out of an underpass, waving red and white flags. A banner in the background reads, "Stokoe Stars - Wembley 73".

The scene changes to a supermarket where a woman is packing groceries. She is wearing a red and white Sunderland rosette.

Packing groceries in a Sunderland store as excitement mounts in1973. | North East Film Archive

The footage also shows women working in Jacky White’s Market where they are packing groceries.

It was packed at the market's grocery stand and the staff were wearing red and white hats as they served customers. | North East Film Archive

A woman at a butcher's counter serves one of the customers who is wearing a red and white plastic hat.

The poignant footage shows an old man in a pub waving a piece of paper.

There’s footage of people looking down from a building where a red and white rosette is hanging inside the window. The film then shows a woman in a shop behind a large window display for the Sunderland Association FC team.

Get in touch if you recognise the office where these women were working in 1973. | North East Film Archive

The display reads, "Good Luck at Wembley". There is another banner in a window, which reads, "Put Sunderland Back on the Map Lads".

The clip comes from a larger film called Nice One Sunderland on the North East Film Archive website. It was produced for the Sunderland Corporation to show working life, transport, industry and education on Wearside.

This happy fan was enjoying every minute of Cup Final week in 1973. | North East Film Archive

Our thanks go to the excellent North East Film Archive library which has a vast collection of memories on film from the North East and Yorkshire’s history,

Its team has painstakingly taken on the task of preserving, cataloguing, and digitising these vital collections of reminders of our past.

NEFA officials have previously shared clips of fun at the Seaburn fairground in 1966 and former centre forward Brian Clough in one of his last matches for Sunderland before the injury which put paid to his playing career.

NEFA has a huge catalogue of over 70,000 items of original film, video tape, and born-digital material. Its team painstakingly preserves, catalogues, and digitises these vital collections of reminders of our past.

NEFA operates the The Yorkshire Film Archive in York, and the North East Film Archive, in Middlesbrough. It also has a new rental platform which is available at https://yfanefa.vhx.tv/

If you have cine film memories of Sunderland and County Durham as it looked in years gone by, we would love to hear from you. Email [email protected] and tell us more.