Minor creaks were beginning to appear in Ian McColl’s Sunderland side as they were well and truly humbled against a Leicester City side who had failed to win a game up until this point of the season with this being the fifth game.
McColl’s side were meant to be boosted by the big money signing of Jim Baxter who signed for a fee of almost £80,000 from Glasgow Rangers but with the side looking to him to inspire, Baxter lost his way. According to the Sunday Mercury from this day in 1965, he lost ‘his
disruptive touch and never played a pass that posed real problems’.
Truthfully, despite a brace against Sheffield United earlier in the season, it became apparent that the Scot was more of a menace off the pitch rather than on it where he was dubbed with the nickname ‘Bacardi Jim’.
As for the game itself, Leicester scored four goals within the hour through Mike Stringfellow, Dave Gibson, Jackie Sinclair and Derek Dougan with John O’Hare’s late finish merely a consolation. Other newspaper reports highlighted the influence of Leicester’s midfield with the aforementioned Gibson getting particular praise for ‘his best display in a long time’.
With Sunderland’s full backs struggling, the team looked ragged and laboured and it was easy for the home side’s players to get shots away with Stringfellow particularly keen to test Sandy McLaughlan in the Sunderland goal.
Despite a solid start to the season where the team had picked up seven points from the first four games, the issues surrounding Baxter led to serious unrest between the players as the season went on. With a split in the camp between a group supporting Charlie Hurley and the other with Baxter, the team spirit was progressively derailed as this season went on.
In many ways, this early season hammering was only a sign of things to come for McColl as many 4-1 and 5-1 defeats would be on the cards as the season went on. Luckily for the team, there was three worse teams in Fulham, Northampton and Blackburn Rovers which ensured they survived to fight another day in Division One.
