Billy Hughes sadly passed in 2020. He was emblematic of something special, not just for his team – Sunderland – but for the English game as a whole, something we should especially ponder as the third round of the FA Cup comes around again.
Hughes was a star in Sunderland’s road to Wembley in 1973, then played a pivotal role as the Second Division side defeated the seemingly invincible Leeds United in what remains one of the most memorable FA Cup finals of all time.
Billy Hughes, Sunderland Legend
Billy Hughes looked as though he roadied for Deep Purple, possibly dabbled in playing bass for Blodwyn Pig, the look that was required from the kind of mercurial, crowd pleasing ranks to which he belonged. But give him a ball and he could illuminate a freezing, grey afternoon at Roker Park and give the people something to enthral them, with barely a TV camera ever in sight.
As the big guns enter the FA Cup this weekend, and play their reserves to do it, thoughts of Hughes will loom large, not least because, like Peters, he too represents an era when English football had something very special, something it has largely disposed of in the race for money – the FA Cup itself.
Doing away with replays, heading for midweek rather than weekend rounds, some of them are self inflicted wounds, but the progressive disinterest in the competition, not merely at the top, but from the ranks beneath, is profundly depressing.
Billy Hughes, FA Cup Hero
There will, for example, be ten Championship clubs only too delighted to get knocked out this weekend – and they’ll be selecting sides accordingly – so that they can concentrate on the possibility of promotion and of then being ritually humiliated on “Match of the Day” for a season while soaking up the gravy. That’s where we are now, not playing for the glory that the fans want, but playing for the money that the directors want.
Contrast that with Hughes’ era. From Sunderland in ’73 to West Ham in 1980, three Second Division sides – Southampton were the other – won the FA Cup and Fulham reached the final too. Since West Ham’s win, no Second Division / Championship team has won the trophy and there have been just four second tier finalists in 40 years, and one of those, QPR, was in 1982.
So, looking forward to the big Wembley occasion in May when Chelsea and Manchester City will arrive there without even trying, I think we can all be excused a little nostalgia for the days of Billy Hughes, don’t you
The 1967-68 of the greatest cup competition in the world, The FA Cup, brought with it its usual drama and excitement, its nine month run extending from the slopes of Tow Law Town to the wide open spaces of Wembley Stadium.
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