Sunderland AFC Miscellany

Rob Mason

Description

Sunderland AFC Miscellany is packed with fascinating facts, figures, trivia, stats, stories and anecdotes all relating to the history of Sunderland Football Club. From memorable matches to favourite sons, the book follows no set order, chronological or otherwise, but has plenty to keep any fanatic coming back for more - and is fully endorsed by the club.Key features- A miscellany of trivia, history, anecdotes, facts and figures relating to the history of Sunderland AFC, which is fully endorsed by the club- Part of the popular and successful Miscellany series which features a number of football clubs- Includes contemporary and historic images of club legends and from the key events and matches from the club's colourful history- Written by respected football writer and Sunderland AFC programme editor Rob Mason. He has written several books on the club, including Cult Heroes, Match of My Life, Greatest Games and the autobiography of Len Ashurst: Left Back In Time

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909178236
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

SUNDERLAND AFC
Miscellany
All statistics, facts and figures are correct as of 31st July 2012
Rob Mason
Rob Mason has asserted his rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Published By: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd A2 Yeoman Gate Yeoman Way Durrington BN13 3QZ
Email: [e-mail] Web: www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
First published 2012
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-909178-23-6
Ebook Conversion by www.ebookpartnership.com
To Jamie and Tom The black cats who helped with the typing.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY LEN ASHURST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
START
PHOTOS
FOREWORD BY LEN ASHURST
I know from the 458 games I played for Sunderland and the 66 games I had as manager that there are a million and one stories from the club. However even I found out some things I didn’t know by reading this collection of odd facts, figures and anecdotes put together by Rob Mason.
I played with a lot of the people written about here, players such as ‘The Singing Winger’ Colin Grainger, an England international who was once on the same bill as The Beatles. Ian Lawther was another former Sunderland teammate, who this miscellany informs us signed for Brentford at the House of Commons as their chairman at the time was an MP. I hadn’t realised that Sunderland supporters on the way to a war-time cup final had come under machine gun fire at Newcastle station, nor that Sunderland’s all time record league goalscorer Charlie Buchan once had a young Cliff Richard working for him as an office boy!
I do know that in professional football preparation is so important so I was interested to read that in 1947 Jack Stelling played against Arsenal having been married on the same morning, some preparation.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book which will provide you with many a tale that you won’t be able to resist re-telling!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks to Pitch Publishing for sticking with me and approaching me to write this book after already having to cope with me when publishing Sunderland’s Greatest Games .
Special thanks too to Len Ashurst, author of one of the most candid football autobiographies you will ever read in Left Back in Time . No one has ever pulled on the red and white stripes as much as ‘Lennie the Lion’, Sunderland’s record outfield appearance maker who later also managed the club. Len has kindly contributed the Foreword to this book.
My thanks also to my better half Barbara. No one helps more with all of my Sunderland books than her even though I gave up trying to convince her to come to every match back in 1977 when even though the Lads were bottom of the league and had just thrashed West Ham 6-0 she complained it was ‘too one sided.’ Actually I quite like one sided games like that so long as the Lads aren’t on the receiving end.
INTRODUCTION
If Sunderland is your club you’ll already know that there are hidden depths to what goes on at SAFC. If to you Sunderland is just another club then even the gentlest of scratches on the surface will soon reveal to you that Sunderland have much more to them than you might realise. It’s a bit like the Stadium of Light itself. From the outside it looks big, but inside it seems much bigger, some people even liken it to the Tardis. That’s because when you see the stadium from the outside you only see some of it. Once you go through the turnstiles you realise that at ground level you are already above the first tier of seating as the pitch is below ground – like the coal mine it is built on.
You might already know that only five clubs have been champions of England more times than Sunderland, you may know that the Wearsiders played in two of the greatest ever games at Wembley – the 1998 Play Off final when they scored ten times and lost (4-4 followed by 6-7 on penalties) and the 1973 FA Cup final when Jim Montgomery made the greatest save ever seen beneath the old twin towers as Sunderland sensationally won the cup.
The Sunderland AFC Miscellany is not a book of greatest tales, or facts and figures although there are some here. Think of it more like a mazy dribble by Allan ‘Magic’ Johnston, a slaloming run from the back by Gary Bennett or most of all like a ‘What’ll happen next?’ rather like Nyron ‘Nugsy’ Nosworthy in possession.
I hope that reading this book you find out things you never realised and that if you picked it up intending to dip into it for a couple of minutes you then discover you’ve been reading for an hour or more.
Sunderland in fact is a very special club, followed by very special, passionate supporters. I hope you enjoy Sunderland AFC Miscellany and next time you see Sunderland in action realise that there’s more to the Black Cats than at first you might think.
Rob Mason
CHRISTMAS BOX 1
Bobby Best produced his own Christmas cracker with a hat-trick at Newcastle on Christmas Day 1914. Charlie Buchan and George Philip were also on the mark as red and white ruled 5-2. Being Christmas, Sunderland gave their neighbours a chance. Leading 3-0 at half-time, goalkeeper Leslie Scott and left-back Harry Ness both put through their own goal to give the Magpies a couple of Christmas presents.
CHRISTMAS BOX 2
Christmas Day 1953 saw Fred Hall score the only goal of his 224-game career for Sunderland to help earn a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield at Roker Park.
BOWLS AT THE OTHER ROKER PARK
You can still visit a Roker Park where Sunderland played. Quite apart from the old football ground that is now a housing estate there is the nearby Roker Park. This really is a park and a particularly beautiful one right next to the Roker seafront. Sunderland played there on 9th August 1928 – at bowls. Sunderland AFC were the ‘away’ side against Roker Park when a massive crowd (for bowls) crammed around the bowling green to see how the footballing heroes got on. The Sunderland team consisted of Davie Halliday, Albert McInroy, Charlie Parker, J Simpson, J Oakley, Billy Clunas, Ernie England, G Lowes, R Thompson, D Wright, T Applegarth, J Dowsey, Billy Hogg, T McNally, A Donaldson and Bob Plenderleith, who after injury curtailed his football career became one of Roker Park’s best bowlers. Visits by the football team to play bowls at Roker Park became a regular occurrence during the 1930s.
ANOTHER ROKER PARK
There is still a football ground in England called Roker Park. It is at Stotfold in Bedfordshire. What’s more you can hire it for £100 or £150 with floodlights! What are you waiting for – you could play at Roker Park, sort of. Formed in 1946, Stotfold have played at Roker Park since 1965 and operate in the Molten South Midlands Football League. Stotfold is near to Hitchin, the birthplace of Kevin Phillips and also to Super Kev’s old club Baldock Town.
SUB FOR SENT-OFF PLAYER
Tranmere Rovers infamously brought on a substitute for a player who had been sent off as they knocked Sunderland out of the FA Cup in January 2000. As Clint Hill was dismissed confusion reigned and Rovers brought on substitute Stephen Frail without anyone going off. The game was in its dying moments but Frail was on long enough to head clear a free-kick. Realising his mistake as Sunderland’s coaching staff remonstrated, the referee blew for full time before the signalled minimum added time had expired. The referee, wondering if he could ‘See how many there were yet?’ was Rob Harris. It might as well have been Rolf Harris.
DOUBLE INTERNATIONAL
Willie Watson wasn’t just good enough to play football for England – he played cricket for England too! Watson won four caps for England at football and played 23 Test matches, scoring 829 runs with a highest score of 116. It was one of two centuries scored by the double international who had a Test batting average of 25.85.
CHARLIE BUCHAN
Sunderland’s all-time record league goalscorer Charlie Buchan scored 209 goals for The Lads. These included the last goal before the Football League ceased owing to the First World War and the first one after it. Buchan’s last goal before soccer cessation saw him complete a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Spurs while the resumption of league football saw him notch the opener in a 2-1 win over Villa.
ENGLAND AT SUNDERLAND
England have played full internationals at three different grounds in Sunderland: at the Stadium of Light, Roker Park and the Newcastle Road ground. Wales were beaten 4-1 in March 1891 at Newcastle Road. Roker Park welcomed England for full internationals in 1899, 1920 and 1950 against Ireland, Ireland again and Wales while Belgium and Turkey were entertained at the Stadium of Light in 1999 and 2003. England have a 100% record at Sunderland, winning all six games played on Wearside with a goals scored and conceded record of 27-6!
WORLD CUP WEARSIDE
When England hosted the World Cup in 1966, Sunderland’s Roker Park staged four games including a quarter-final. Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park was the only other north-east venue to be used for the finals tournament, the Teesside ground hosting group four games along with Roker. The World Cup games played at Sunderland were: 13th July 1966 Italy 2 Chile 0 group four 16th July 1966 Italy 0 USSR 1 group four 20th July 1966 Chile 1 USSR 2 group four 23rd July 1966 Hungary 2 USSR 1 quarter-final
Top stars such as Lev Yashin, the Russian goalkeeper, Ferenc Bene and Florian Albert of Hungary, Chile goalkeeper Juan Olivares and Italian superstars Giacinto Facch