Capital One Cup: The view from the Stadium of Light

"The Pope is a Mackem!" screamed one headline as pictures of Pope Francis holding a Sunderland strip emerged.

Sunderland's chaplain Father Marc Lyden-Smith had gone on a pilgrimage to the Vatican and took with him a Sunderland shirt with the name Papa Francesco printed across the back. Amid a crowd of 120,000 the Pope was guided, by chance, to Father Lyden-Smith and presented with the shirt. He held the shirt aloft to pose for a photo, then asked if he could keep it and promised to pray for the club. Prayers were certainly needed as we sat bottom of the table with just one point from eight games.

Although I wouldn't say that I'm an atheist - probably agnostic would be more accurate - this is certainly not the sort of thing that I tend to believe in. But perhaps there has been some sort of divine intervention... certainly a lot has happened through our Capital One Cup run to date that goes beyond the usual laws of supporting Sunderland Association Football Club.

It all began back on August 27 with the visit of MK Dons. With just 12 minutes to go in the first round tie the visitors led 2-0 at the Stadium of Light - deservedly so having played the better football  but, then, from nowhere, Sunderland stepped on the gas and scored four in the final 12 minutes to turn the match on its head.

Paolo di Canio would be relieved of his duties shortly before the second round match with Peterborough, which we won 2-0 in a much more straightforward fashion with Kevin Ball at the helm. Next round, another manager, and Sunderland saw off Southampton 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.

Mauricio Pochettino had made wholesale changes to the Southampton side - as Gus Poyet did with his team - and so there was still little in the way of genuine excitement on Wearside about the cup run. After all, we had far more pressing concerns in the Premier League.

The quarter-final draw threw up yet another home cup tie - was there something in this? - but against an improving Chelsea side that were only two points off the top of the Premier league table by the time we'd come to play them.

For 88 minutes it looked as though the result would follow form as Chelsea led 1-0 through a Frank Lampard goal that was awarded after the consultation of goal line technology. But with just two minutes remaining Fabio Borini slotted in from an impossibly tight angle between the post and David Luiz to send the game into extra time. And then with two minutes remaining on the clock in extra time Ki Sung-Yeung averted the seemingly inevitable penalty shootout and send us through to the semi-finals.

Dare to dream? Maybe just a little.

As a Sunderland fan pessimism becomes engrained in your psyche. There's been too much disappointment. We weren't content with being the worst team in Premier League history when getting a record low points haul of 19 in 2002-03, we had to go and beat our own record in 2006-07 with just 15 points. There's been penalty shootout defeat after penalty shootout defeat and endless summer spending sprees that harbour new, but ultimately misplaced, pre-season hopes.

Every set of fans has their own sob story, I know. And it certainly could be a lot worse. But I can assure you that very few Wearsiders, hand on heart, genuinely thought we'd beat Manchester United over two legs in the semi-final. Regardless of United's struggles this season.

Even after winning the first leg 2-1 - again at the Stadium of Light - the feeling was that, with the added insurance of an away goal, David Moyes' men were still in the driving seat. Then when Jonny Evans put United 1-0 up towards the end of the first half at Old Trafford it looked like the dream was over.

We managed to hang on in the second half and force the game into extra time, but we still needed to score and had yet to muster a single shot on target. And it stayed that way until the 119th minute when Phil Bardsley fired a speculative, and quite frankly tame, shot straight at David De Gea. Our first shot on target, straight at the 'keeper, one minute to go, that's it.

Call it bad goalkeeping, call it divine intervention, call it what you like. The ball ended up in the back of the net. Now THAT is it. We're on our way to Wembley. For the first time in 22 years. Dare to dream? Stuff your dreaming, we're there.

Or not. Another catastrophic failure of Sunderland proportions as the players commit the cardinal footballing sin and 'switch off' immediately after scoring. Javier Hernandez makes it 2-1 and we're going to penalties.

We're terrible at penalties.

And we're still terrible at penalties. It just so happens that on that night Manchester United, the most ruthless of English clubs for the past two decades, were even worse than us. Only three of 10 penalties were scored. Two of them by us.

So that's it, we're on our way to Wembley: maybe not against ALL the odds, but certainly not by the most conventional of methods.

And now that we're making the trip south to the capital, en masse, I feel myself being uncharacteristically optimistic. We've got a good record against City, already beaten them once this season, won three and lost just one of the last five meetings between the two clubs. Why not? Maybe it really is our year. Maybe our name is on the trophy.

I can't bring myself to bet on Sunderland, particularly in a match of this magnitude. There's already enough riding on the outcome. But at odds of 11.010/1 to win in 90 minutes and 6.25/1 to lift the trophy I wouldn't put anyone off having a dabble on us. After all, we've got Pope Francis on our side.

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You've read Jaymes' thoughts - now check out the View from the Etihad from B.B contributor and City fan Steve Rawlings.