TONY MOWBRAY has spent the week celebrating Sunderland’s FA Cup final triumph in 1973 – now, the Black Cats boss wants his players to start writing their own names into the history books when they head to Preston for the final day of the Championship season on Monday.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Sunderland’s Wembley win over Leeds United, and earlier this week, Mowbray attended a special gala dinner in the Stadium of Light boardroom with members of the FA Cup-winning squad and their families.

The current head coach vividly remembers watching Bob Stokoe and his players pull off one of the great FA Cup upsets as an enraptured nine-year-old, and is hoping his own squad can create some enduring memories of their own in the next few weeks.

They head to Deepdale on Monday knowing a win is essential if they are to have any chance of making the play-offs, and Mowbray is challenging his players to use the 1973 success as a source of inspiration.

“The players from 1973 are still revered around the city,” he said. “For me, we’re trying to make the supporters happy with the current team. We’ve got this exciting, young team, but we have to make our own mark on history somewhere along the line.

“If we could get a positive result on Monday, and then have a positive outcome finding our way battling through the play-offs, then we’ll create our own iconic moment in history. Hopefully, we can do that.”

For now, the 1973 triumph remains Sunderland’s greatest achievement of the last half-century by a considerable distance, with the Wembley victory having lost none of its lustre over the course of the last 50 years.

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The likes of Jimmy Montgomery, Bobby Kerr and Micky Horswill remain regular attendees at the Stadium of Light – Montgomery was at Sunderland’s Academy of Light training ground yesterday watching the current squad go through their paces – while Stokoe and Ian Porterfield are fondly remembered following their passing.

“I had a dinner at the stadium this week, in the boardroom, with the lads from 1973 and their partners, and it was really enjoyable,” said Mowbray. “There are some real good characters there.

“Fifty years seems an awfully long time ago. I can remember sitting there watching the game. It’s one of my first proper memories of football. The World Cup in 1970 was a big memory, the FA Cup in 1970 with Leeds and Chelsea too, but 1973 was probably the next massive memory I have of football as a nine-year-old kid.

“Cup final day in those days was a proper family event, with the curtains drawn, the buffet done and all my dad’s mates from the pub there. It was one of the top days. There was no football on TV in those days, so to get to watch a live game was fantastic.

“To see Ian Porterfield score the winner, and Monty’s incredible double save, they’re iconic moments in football history and the club rightly should celebrate it.”