Martin Harvey was part of the Sunderland team that I first started supporting as a young lad.
Many of us can name specific teams from the past (the FA Cup Final team of 1973 being a good example) but the first teams that I can recall were from the mid-1960s: Monty, Cec Irwin, Colin Tod, Jim Baxter, Len Ashurst, ‘King’ Charlie Hurley, Colin Suggett, George Herd, George Mulhall, George Kinnell, Jimmy McNab and of course, Harvey.
Harvey was a one-club player, totalling 353 appearances for the Black Cats
from 1959 through to 1972, scoring five goals.
He was born in Belfast on 19 September 1941, and started playing for his local side, Boyland FC. He played for his country several times at schoolboy level before a trial spell at Burnley, but at 5ft 3 inches, they considered him too small.
However, their loss was to be our gain and Alan Brown didn’t hesitate to sign him for Sunderland in September 1959. Making his debut on this day in 1959, in a 0-0 draw at Plymouth Argyle. I remember as a schoolboy myself, that Burnley always had a good scouting system, and two lads from my own school team would go on to have trials there.
At the time, Sunderland seemed to keep an eye on ‘scraps’ that Burnley rejected — we also picked up Montgomery and Irwin, who’d also been rejected at Turf Moor.
Harvey was a good old-fashioned wing half, usually playing on the right hand side. Despite his lack of height or bulk, he was a tough tackler, and an intelligent player — thoughtful in his distribution and a good reader of the game.
He had to wait quite some time to become a regular in the side, as Brown brought him in to be an understudy for club captain Stan Anderson, and it wasn’t until the 1963/1964 season that he took the number four shirt from Anderson, and became a regular in the side.
By that time, he was already a full international for Northern Ireland, and that same October, he also took the reigns from Danny Blanchflower in the Northern Ireland lineup. A memorable month indeed, taking over from Anderson, and then Blanchflower! Harvey won his first cap when he was just nineteen years old, in a 3-2 defeat to Italy in April 1961.
He would go on to wear the green shirt with pride, winning thirty four caps and scoring three goals, in a ten-year period.
His final cap was a 1-0 win over Wales in May of 1971, part of the annual ‘Home Internationals’ series which I loved to watch. Those games between the home nations were often some of the rare live matches shown on tv in those days, but was always interest in watching Northern Ireland, with Harvey being a regular.
He was part of our first ever promotion team in 1964 (Prior to 1958, Sunderland had never not been in Division One) and during the latter stages of his career, he played many games at left back.
Some think that if it hadn’t been for an injury suffered against Norwich in 1972 at the age of thirty not only would he have gone on to make over four hundred appearances for the Lads, but he would also have been a part of the famous 1973 team.
Harvey stayed on at Roker Park and became part of the backroom staff.
He went on to manage Carlisle United — his only sole managerial role, although he did take on one or two assistant roles, most notably to fellow ex-Rokerite Billy Bingham for Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup, and two caretaker roles at Plymouth.
Awarded a testimonial game against Newcastle in April of 1975, he passed away in Devon, where he’d settled, on November 25 2019, aged 78.
