WHEN Ian Porterfield passed away on Tuesday night, Sunderland Football Club lost one of its all-time legends.

But as the nationwide mourning that has accompanied the 61-year-old's death has proved, Porterfield's FA Cup final heroics in 1973 transcended the parochial boundaries that tend to divide the footballing landscape.

His death has resonated strongest in Sunderland, of course, where the loss of one of the club's untouchables has shocked and saddened an entire city, and his passing has also been felt keenly in Rotherham, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Reading and London, towns and cities he called home during a transitory career.

Yet the impact of Porterfield's death has not only been felt in the places in which he played or managed. Tuesday evening's news struck an emotional chord right across Great Britain and, in the vast majority of cases, it did so because of just one goal.

Not just any goal, of course, but a searing right-footed volley that scorched past Leeds United goalkeeper David Harvey, secured one of the greatest upsets in FA Cup final history, and became etched into the nation's consciousness as a result.

Porterfield's match-winner quickly came to represent the triumph of the underdog, proof, on the greatest stage of them all, that even the biggest of outsiders would eventually have their day.

It inevitably overshadowed the rest of a playing career that saw Porterfield make 268 appearances for Sunderland, and ensured the otherwise unremarkable midfielder would be part of a canon of FA Cup heroes that includes the likes of Sir Stanley Matthews, Peter Osgood, Ricky Villa and Keith Houchen.

All are remembered for one match or, in the vast majority of cases, one goal, and all allow the FA Cup to justify its reputation as the greatest cup competition of them all.

But as Porterfield is remembered at football grounds up and down the country this weekend, it is impossible not to also acknowledge that he belongs to a pantheon that has largely disappeared.

Just as his 1973 match-winner belongs to a sepia-tinged age where cup-final Saturday meant street parties and celebrations, so the entire notion of FA Cup heroism appears to belong to football's history books.

The FA Cup final's last 'Ian Porterfield' moment was arguably the Lawrie Sanchez header that enabled Wimbledon to defeat Liverpool in 1988.

Since then, the occasion has produced an ever-dwindling list of winners, made up of players for whom winning an FA Cup final is merely an appendage to a litany of more cherished victories.

Think of all of the matches from the last ten years and it is impossible to identify a bona-fide hero in the mould of a Porterfield or a Villa. Steven Gerrard came close two seasons ago but, when he hangs up his boots, the midfielder will not be remembered for his performance in Liverpool's penalty shoot-out victory over West Ham. He will be synonymous with his club's Champions League comeback against AC Milan and England's remarkable 5-1 victory in Munich.

A true FA Cup final hero should burn brightest of all at Wembley but, for that to happen, the competition needs to provide an environment where the seemingly impossible is made real. At the moment, with the same elite group of teams playing out a succession of increasingly meaningless matches, the unlikely is having to remain exactly that.

So instead of celebrating new legends, football is forced to wallow in nostalgia, embracing the likes of Porterfield as heroes of a distant golden age.

Much as the Scotsman will have appreciated the eulogies that have been made in the last few days, his desire to continue chasing new dreams with the likes of Zambia, Oman and Armenia suggests that even he will have been somewhat saddened at the lack of successors to take his place in the public's affection.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Porterfield's predecessor as manager of Aberdeen, was one of the first people to mark his passing on Tuesday, claiming his death was a "tragedy for football".

Yet Ferguson's intransigence is one of the key factors behind the FA Cup's inability to regain its reputation as the primary vehicle for feats of footballing heroism.

The Manchester United manager is vehemently opposed to UEFA chief executive Michel Platini's plans to award a Champions League place to the FA Cup winners and on Tuesday, just hours before news of Porterfield's death was confirmed, his chief executive at Old Trafford, David Gill, told the Frenchman to abandon his ideas at a meeting of Europe's top clubs.

Ferguson's argument, which smacks of blatant self-interest, is that the FA Cup does not deserve a Champions League place as it is a vastly inferior competition to the Premier League.

The thousands of football supporters who will mourn Porterfield's passing this weekend, however, would no doubt be among the first to disagree.