The Ulsterman was part of the Nottingham Forest side which led 10-man Newcastle 3-1 at St James' Park in March 1974 when a pitch invasion caused the game to be halted.

Remarkably, after calm had been restored, the Magpies hit back to win 4-3 on the day and although the tie was ordered to be replayed at Goodison Park, Newcastle eventually emerged victorious after a second replay, and went on to reach the final, where they were soundly beaten by Liverpool.

However, time has not salved O'Neill's bitter memories of that afternoon on Tyneside.

He said: "If the crowd hadn't invaded the pitch, we would have gone on to have won the game, I am quite sure.

"There was only 22 minutes left in the match, we were leading 3-1 and we were playing very, very strongly, and we never got the opportunity to play a replay back at the City Ground, which seemed really strange.

"The semi-final against Burnley, we could have been in the final - and we could have played equally as badly as Newcastle did in the final."

Asked if the whole episode still rankles, he replied with a smile: "Yes, it does, absolutely. I think about it about 14 times a day."

O'Neill has never reached the final of world football's most famous club knockout competition, although his Aston Villa side made the semi-finals in 2010, only to be beaten 3-0 at Wembley by Chelsea.

Another visit to headquarters awaits if the Black Cats can see off Everton on Merseyside, although O'Neill is refusing to take anything for granted after insisting earlier in the competition that there was no chance of them going all the way.

He said: "If I said that - and maybe I did, who knows what I said then?

"I was probably asked when we were kicking off against Peterborough, or perhaps the game against Middlesbrough, and obviously Wembley is a million miles away.

"Now we have just about as tough a draw as you are likely to pick up, Everton away from home, but it doesn't stop your feelings of, 'Well, there are eight teams left in the competition, that's all'.

"We are going to go for everything, and it won't be for the want of trying.

"But there are some major teams left in it and we would just love to be in the hat whenever the draw is made.

"If we are in the hat, at least we give ourselves a chance."

Sunderland head into the last eight-clash having disposed of Everton's city neighbours Liverpool last weekend with a 1-0 Barclays Premier League victory, and having seen the Toffees suffer a 3-0 derby defeat at Anfield three days later.

They will do so with striker and last week's match-winner Nicklas Bendtner having made a rapid recovery from the knee injury which saw him leave the Stadium of Light pitch on a stretcher, but without left-back Kieran Richardson.

Sunderland, of course, famously lifted the trophy in 1973, and while O'Neill, who supported the club as a boy, is well aware of the place that achievement holds in the club's history, he is intent on adding to it.

He said: "The FA Cup itself has perhaps over the last 10, 12, 14 years lost a little bit of its sheen, and I am hoping it will recover and eventually in another 60, 70 years' time, who knows, it might come back to being the most important cup competition?

"It has a fantastic history and it is one you would really want to be part of.

"This football club has lived really on the 1973 epic cup final against Leeds United - Jim Montgomery's double save, Ian Porterfield scoring the goal - that's absolutely fantastic.

"But you would like to think that at some stage or another at this particular club over the next 100 years, we would be able to share a few more moments."