​It’s funny what you remember and what you’ve forgotten about the momentous days in your life. The first Sunderland game I went to in person is exactly that – a mix of things I remember and, after reading the match report, things I didn’t. I knew it was against Watford in 1983 and we drew 2-2.According to the Watford Observer, it was the May Bank Holiday and Roker Park was rain-drenched. News to me, 43 years later. I remember feeling deflated when Watford took the lead in the third minute, then disbelief when we turned it around to lead 2-1 before more disappointment as Watford grabbed a late equaliser.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn some ways, the ups and downs of those first 90 minutes were a precursor to the next four decades of regular match-going.One thing I remember vividly from the game is who I was with. My love affair with Sunderland isn’t a generational one like so many other fans’, and my first match wasn’t a rite of passage with a lifelong Sunderland-supporting dad or grandad. My dad and his dad weren’t really bothered by football, and my parents separated when I was young anyway. My other grandad, who was called Harry Potter long before some wizard or whatever he was ever existed, used to go to Gateshead games at Redheugh Park when they were still in the Football League.My brother, uncle and cousins all supported Newcastle. I remember when I was about six my Mam suggesting I support Sunderland because my brother supported Newcastle and I liked the sound of doing the opposite to him. We were living out in the sticks in Derwentside at the time and I went to a school with about 30 pupils in total, so there wasn’t any peer pressure over who to support either. Shortly afterwards, we went to Wengers department store in Newcastle and I got a red and white strip, and the rest is history, as they say.From then on, I couldn’t get enough of Sunderland and football in general. I remember avidly watching the scores come through on the vidiprinter or excitedly looking up the results in the Sunday paper. I loved watching Shoot on Tyne Tees TV on a Sunday with Roger Tames and George Taylor and buying Shoot and Match to get as much information as possible. I loved the player spotlights they used to do – favourite food, best film you’ve seen, what car do you drive? Imagine the answers now compared to back then. I even had a spell of buying Roy of the Rovers – that was fantasy football before the phrase even existed.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI remember being blown away when I discovered radio commentary of the game against West Ham in May 1980 when we clinched promotion back to the top flight. Despite all those memories, I don’t ever remember asking my Mam if I could go to a match. I’ve no idea why not. Maybe because I had no one to take me or go with, as we’d moved back to Gateshead by then, where you could count the Sunderland-supporting kids at my school on one hand.So it came as a complete surpr