70 years ago - and Britain was slowly emerging from national trauma and wreckage of World War II. It was 1953. There would be a new Queen on the throne, Everest was to be conquered by a British expedition, and the hardship of post-war rationing was coming to an end.
It was a golden age for football and Newcastle United, in particular, who lifted the coveted FA Cup in 1951 and '52 - and would do so again in 1955. But on this day seven decades ago, it was Gateshead who for once eclipsed their illustrious Magpies neighbours in the headline stakes, and created their own little piece of Cup history.
Gateshead were a football league club in 1953, plying their trade in the old Third Division North but, as ever, existing in the sizeable shadow of Newcastle United on the other side of the River Tyne. Before the war, Gateshead had come up against the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Notts County, and even modern-day giants Manchester City in the FA Cup - with varying degrees of success.
