Promotion Winning Black Cats

Rob Mason

Description

From 1890 to 1958, Sunderland were part of football's elite with a 68-year unbroken run in the top flight. The shock of a first relegation in 1958 was matched by the elation of a first promotion in 1963/64. Starting with that season, the book celebrates every occasion Sunderland went up. What was the secret to each Black Cats promotion? And who did the fans have to thank? Rob Mason gets the inside story through exclusive interviews with players and managers who were at the heart of the action. Moments of magic and mystery are revealed as the story of each season unfolds. From Charlie Hurley's much-loved 1963/64 side, through to the second Bob Stokoe side to win a trophy at Sunderland in 1976, Ken Knighton winning promotion in his first season as a manager and the teams of Denis Smith and Peter Reid - who each won promotion twice - then on to the 'Sund-Ireland' era when promotion was won under Mick McCarthy and then Roy Keane, all the great days and great games are here to cherish and enjoy.

Sujets

• Northumberland

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785319716
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Rob Mason, 2021
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Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785317934
eBook ISBN 9781785319716
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1963/64 Division Two Runners-Up
1975/76 Division Two Champions
1979/80 Division Two Runners-Up
1987/88 Division Three Champions
1989/90 Division Two Promoted
1995/96 Division One Champions
1998/99 Division One Champions
2004/05 Championship Champions
2006/07 Championship Champions
The Players
Appendix
Photos
Rob Mason is Sunderland AFC s official historian. He has watched the team since 1967, written for the programme since 1986 and spent almost two decades working full-time at the Stadium of Light editing the club s publications. During this time Sunderland won more Programme of the Year awards than any other club. He has written over 50 football books, including over 40 on Sunderland.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AS ALWAYS with any book there are many people to thank. Just like a goalscorer takes the headlines when the whole team have contributed, the author gets his or her name on the cover but can t achieve what they want to without a lot of assistance.
In my case the first people I want to thank are the players who so readily gave up their time to talk at length about the promotion campaigns they starred in. Every one of the people featured in Promotion-Winning Black Cats is extremely proud to have played for a club of Sunderland s stature and to be part of a success story. So often my interviews became even longer than planned, because after I d finished my questions the tables would be turned as ex-players wanted to quiz me about the state of the club today. That showed me I d made good choices in who I d contacted. These are players with the club at heart and, of course, they are not the only ones as so many of their team-mates are just as committed. So my sincere thanks go to: Brian Usher, Dick Malone, Shaun Elliott, Paul Jack Lemon, Tony Norman, Craig Russell, Allan Magic Johnston, Stephen Sleeves Elliott and (for Brazil he should play) Danny Collins. Additionally, my thanks go to Gordon Armstrong for contributing the foreword. Gordon appeared in the promotion seasons of 1987/88, 1989/90 and 1995/96, making more appearances in promotion seasons than anyone else.
I also must place on record my deep thanks to Andrew Smithson. The author of Dickie Ord s biography, Andrew was one of my A-team of contributors in the many years I edited the club s publications and is an extremely devoted Sunderland supporter. While I have made every effort to ensure this book is error-free I am massively indebted to Andrew. He took on the task of checking everything for me and thanks to his detailed feedback I realised that as well as making silly typos I had slipped up too many times. Any errors that remain are entirely mine alone but thanks to Andrew s attention to detail there are far fewer than if I didn t have such a tremendous colleague. As always with all the Sunderland books I write I also have to thank Mike Gibson, Barry Jackson and Niall McSweeney, who are always ready to check things out or clarify things for me, often matters of the most obscure nature and the sort of things the internet has still to find a way of retrieving!
Paul and Jane Camillin at Pitch Publishing do such a good job of bringing so many excellent books to readers and I hope this one maintains the standards they have set. I also have to thank Duncan Olner for producing the book cover.
Inspiration for this book came from Peter Rogers, a good friend and for many years my counterpart as programme editor at Norwich City. A walking encyclopaedia on the Carrow Road club, Peter sent me his 2019 book Promotion-Winning Canaries done with Pitch. The strong relationship between Sunderland and Norwich stems from the 1985 League Cup Friendly Final and this volume sprang from his excellent book on his own club s promotions.
My better half Barbara has once again had to listen to me babbling on about SAFC and put up with me disappearing to go to matches or burn the midnight oil writing. Even though I do have a thesaurus she is also used to me interrupting what she is doing by shouting, What s another word for such and such? when I realise I ve repeated a couple of words close together!
Finally, thank you for buying this book because rather like teams have found when playing behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, just as playing football without fans is not the same, there is no point writing books if people aren t going to read them. I hope giving up your time to read what follows will bring back memories, provide a few smiles and ideally tell you some things you might not have known.
FOREWORD
FROM BEING a boy growing up surrounded by Newcastle United supporters on Tyneside, Sunderland were always my club, so I was thrilled to play for Sunderland in every one of my 416 appearances. Of these, 87 were league or play-off games in promotion seasons, which I ve learned from this book means I played more games in promotion-winning campaigns than anyone else. All but one of these matches came as Denis Smith took us from the Third Division to the First in the space of three seasons from 1987/88 to 1989/90, and I was still around to appear in the opening game of the next promotion year in 1995/96.
I had some great times at Sunderland playing alongside some great players and characters, some of whom remain lifelong friends. Rob Mason has spoken to players from every one of the Lads promotion-winning teams right back to the first from 1963/64. The stories of the promotion successes bring back a lot of memories and if you are too young to have enjoyed all of these seasons, then reading about the earlier ones will give you an insight into a series of successes.
To win promotion takes a whole season of effort. Players and staff always want to test themselves at the highest level possible, so a promotion success raises the bar as your prize is to earn the right to pit your wits against opponents from a higher division. For Sunderland to go from the third tier to the first in such a short space of time was an amazing journey and, of course, there were some great games along the way, not least the play-off semi-final against Newcastle in 1990.
Every one of the promotions carries its own excitement, its great goals and a squad of players who made it happen. Whether it is a player who took part in every game or someone who came in to play a handful of matches, they are part of the story. In this book of promotion wins, in addition to the memories of the seasons, every single player who played in a league game is profiled.
As we look to get this great club of ours back to where I feel it belongs at the top level, with our superb stadium, fantastic fan base and great history, I m sure you will enjoy reading the red and white recollections of seasons we all enjoyed - even if at times they were nail-biting and had you scouring the league tables and remaining fixtures of promotion rivals for more hours than you care to admit!
Gordon Armstrong
Gordon Armstrong played in all 49 league and play-off games as promotion was won in 1989/90. He started 36 league fixtures and played in another as a sub in the 1987/88 promotion campaign. He also came off the bench to play in the opening match of the 1995/96 season when Sunderland went on to win the Championship. He is seventh in the all-time list of appearances in the entire history of the club.
INTRODUCTION
WHEN I was born promotion was a word Sunderland supporters didn t need to consider as the Lads had never been relegated. Until a couple of months after I came into the world as the son of two Roker Park regulars, Sunderland were the only club in the country who had only ever played in the top flight, a record they had held since before World War Two. Unfortunately, in my lifetime promotions have come along regularly because, sadly, there have been a lot of relegations as well.
I was six when Charlie Hurley captained the club to its first-ever promotion in 1964. I didn t start going until February 1967 although over the years I have been privileged to meet all of the regular XI from that first promotion season, many of them becoming personal friends. Sadly, several of that side have passed away in recent times but over the years, often at meetings of the excellent Sunderland Former Players Association, the players of the deeply loved 1964 team have shown themselves to be absolute gentlemen as well as great players. Usually at such events I m lost in football chat with various players and my long-suffering wife Barbara gets unintentionally left by me but, like the wives and widows of their team-mates, she will never be left to sit on her own as the Lads will bring her into conversation and ensure her glass is never empty. Indeed, whenever we have a bottle of Primitivo we toast the great, late Nicky Sharkey, who introduced us to his favourite red!
I saw most of the team of 64 in subsequent seasons and Monty was still t