The first half performance was one to forget, but we improved after the break and in the end were unlucky not to take Sunderland to a replay. It could have been different if a certain penalty decision had gone the other way, but I guess that’s just the luck of the cup.

The FA cup has a strange hold on me. Year after year it brings me nothing but disappointment, but every year I keep coming back for more, hoping that this could be our time. While some Leeds fans thought this game was an irrelevance as survival is our priority, I thought it would be nice to get through a couple of rounds to achieve something positive from our season rather than just (hopefully) avoiding relegation.

And I wasn’t the only one, judging by the 5,000 following we took the Stadium of light. Instead of the usual away section we were treated to most of the upper tier, which meant we had quite a few steps to climb (especially to my seat in the very back row) but that was well worth it for the view. In some sections the crowd among the home fans was a bit sparse, and they left it to us to give the tie a bit of atmosphere.

Before kick-off we had the inevitable Life on Mars moment when Sunderland took us back to 1973, with several members of their cup-winning team traipsing onto the pitch, but at least the away section was able to give them a good booing. Today the roles were reversed and we were the plucky underdogs against the Premiership giants.

There were no fewer than seven changes from the game at Derby, one of which was enforced, with young Charlie Taylor coming in for the injured Warnock at left back. Generally he had a pretty good game, apart from his tenancy to hit high crosses into the area, when we didn’t have a big target man and the Sunderland keeper was the giant Pantilimon. Elsewhere we had first starts for Del Fabro and Montenegro, while Austin and Sloth had been dredged up again.

Leeds started the game with plenty of spirit, but in the first half Sunderland’s attacks always carried the greater threat, with their passing and movement troubling our defence every time they came forward. Beradi seemed to get sucked into the middle far too often and left Van Aanholt far too much space on their left, with the result that most of the best Sunderland attacks came down that side.

In the 12th minute we were thankful that Giaccherini sent his fierce shot straight at Silvestri after cutting in from the left, and from the resulting corner Alvarez had a shot deflected onto the bar. Another move down their left saw Van Aanholt send a dangerous ball across the face of goal, but just too far in front of Fletcher, who could only stretch and put it over the bar.

Sloth was on hand to clear of the line from a corner, but it started to look like a matter of time before Sunderland would score from one of their attacks, and their goal duly arrived in the 33rd minute. That man Van Aanholt was again given too much space, and although I thought for a second his shot was heading wide of the far post, sadly it didn’t.

It wasn’t until just before the break that we finally managed a decent move at the other end, as Austin made a threatening run into the box before his shot was blocked. The occasion was too much for the bloke in front of me who fell headlong down four steep rows of seats (whose occupants had already gone for their half time pint) but somehow without hurting himself.

At that stage it looked like I could just relax and accept we were heading for defeat, but Redfearn must have given a decent talk during the break, as we came out looking like we could get back into the tie. As John Cleese said in the film ‘Clockwise’, “I can take the despair, it’s the hope that’s so depressing”.

We should have equalised only a minute into the half when Antenucci sent Adryan clean through, but the Brazilian could only shoot straight at Pantilimon’s legs. Their keeper was on hand to save from Montenegro a few minutes later, and then came the most contentious moment of the afternoon. The referee ruled that Taylor had been fouled just outside the box, but I thought it was well inside and our players thought though too, surrounding the ref to protest we hadn’t got a penalty.

Adryan pulled the free kick back and Austin inevitably sent it well over the bar. A few minutes later Montenegro was guilty of a similar wasteful finish from another good position. We kept pressing forward, but I was starting to get frustrated by the number of moves that broke down through poor passing, with Murphy the guilty party on more than one occasion.

To boost our attacking options Sharp came on for Adryan, but as we continued to go forward we inevitably left more space at the back, and a couple of times Sunderland were close to killing us off with a second goal. Silvestri made a great save from Fletcher and his good positioning served him well as he kept out efforts from Gomez and Wickham.

Doukarra replaced Montenegro as we went for broke in the final minutes, and we were desperately close to an equaliser in injury time. For once Pantilimon was well beaten by a header from Cooper, but it came back off the post before being whacked to safety. And that was it, so there was to be no revenge for 1973 and I have yet another FA cup disappointment to add to my very long list.

I’ll have to admit that Sunderland were the better team for much of the game, but it’s still infuriating that we didn’t snatch a replay when we easily could have done. Still, there’s always next year.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters