‘It’s a pain in the bum’: Port Vale and the magic of the FA Cup

All aboard the Waine train, choo-choo! Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

ROAD TO WEMBLEY

Sunderland fans have suffered enough to know that no matter how well things might appear to be going, calamity is never too far away. Take, for example, a thirtysomething mackem of Football Daily’s acquaintance who travelled to see Régis Le Bris’s side get dumped out of the FA Cup by Port Vale. Having watched his side lose 1-0 to the worst team in League One – and the one we are still following through the tournament – he cheerfully noted that the result “isn’t even in the top 10 most embarrassing things to happen to Sunderland in my lifetime”. With his team safe from relegation, Le Bris treated Port Vale with maximum respect by picking his strongest side but they still lost to a team that clearly “wanted it more”.