The image of a boy standing barefoot on the edge of a Trafalgar Square fountain, wrapped in a Sunderland flag as he shouts to what you imagine is a mass of people, radiates an optimism and defiance which will be carried into Wembley Stadium this weekend.
It was taken when Sunderland played in, and lost, a Checkatrade Trophy final against Portsmouth, six years ago, and hangs in a corner of the North East city’s Fans Museum, where a group of visitors is lingering around it in a kind of reverie on Wednesday afternoon this week.
‘We love the spirit of this picture,’ says Carol Foster, one of the museum’s volunteers.