THE UPS AND DOWNS OF 1984-5

The 1984-5 season was not a good one for Sunderland, who did make the League Cup Final, an achievement, where they faced Norwich City and lost 0-1 in a slap stick performance, where Clive Walker missed a penalty and an own goal for the oppo by Gordon Chisholm, Sunderland's very own goal scorer! The team then went on to lose eight of their next twelve first division games, being relegated!

Coincidentally, the winners of the League Cup, The Canaries, also suffered relegation that season, the only winners of a domestic trophy in England to have done so. Norwich can feel hard done by, having completed their fixtures they were eight points clear of Coventry City, who were in ther "drop zone" with three games of an extended campaign to play. Coventry on the other hand were midway through an extended residency in the top flight, during which they became efficient at avoiding the drop!

After 1-0 wins against bottom of the league Stoke City, and mid-table Luton, they needed an improbable win over league champions, Everton, who had just won the European Cup Winners' Cup, lost the FA Cup Final and beaten Liverpool in the space of nine days. Coventry beat Everton 4-1 and Norwich were destined for the drop. 

The respective qualities of the League Cup finalists would soon be borne out as Norwich came straight back up and Sunderland narrowly missed relegation to the Third Division. They were relegated the following season!!

Despite Norwich and Sunderland appearing in the final, they were both relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season. Normally the winners of the League Cup would qualify to play in the UEFA Cup, but on 31 May 1985 all English clubs were banned from European competitions on an indefinite basis as a result of the Heysel Stadium disaster two days earlier. This meant that Norwich City were unable to compete in the 1985–86 UEFA Cup. As a result of the good faith shared between Norwich and Sunderland (below) supporters during the final, the Friendship Trophy is contested every time the two clubs meet.