Despite a fighting draw in our last game at Roker Park against the Busby Babes, we came into this match sixteenth in our third top-tier season since promotion in 1963/64. It had been a season with Ian McColl at the helm that had flattered to deceive, with the jury still out on the Baxter plan (to build the team around the undoubtedly talented but wildly inconsistent Scot), but high hopes for a clutch of young players accrued and developed by a youth system championed by former manager Alan Brown
and fed by the legendary scouting of Charlie Ferguson. Sunderland, by the end of this season, would have sold fourteen players and bought three since their return to the top flight.
Whether it was ‘needs must’ or a considered strategy, this season had seen youngsters Colin Todd, Bobby Kerr, Billy Hughes, Colin Suggett and Jimmy Shoulder all make their debuts, and when you consider youngsters John O’Hare and Allan Gauden had already made an impression on the first team, there was a lot to be hopeful about if it could be managed well.
Fulham were our opponents at Roker Park on this day. Managed by Vic Buckingham, they were at the wrong end of the table like ourselves. A look at their team for this game would make you wonder why! In Gibraltar-born Tony Macedo they had a goalkeeper considered by many at the time to be the best uncapped goalkeeper in Britain. George Cohen, England’s 1966 World Cup final full-back, lined up in defence alongside fellow international and County Durham lad Bobby Robson. Eire international Jimmy Conway, who could play on the wing or in midfield and gave long and valuable service to Fulham alongside his brother John, could be a handful on his day. They also had a young forward who was scoring goals for fun, would go on to fashion a great career in football and play a part in one of Sunderland’s greatest days some six years after this game. Allan ‘Sniffer’ Clarke was still finding his way in the game at this point in his career, but making waves for sure.
The player I was most looking forward to seeing in the Fulham team, though, was Johnny Haynes. My Dad had waxed lyrical about this inside-forward, nicknamed “the Maestro”, filling my head with stories of the two-footed genius who had played in three World Cup tournaments for England and was the first player to be paid over £100 – a – week. I had been looking forward to the match-up with our own wayward genius Jim Baxter in this game, but had not realised that ‘Slim Jim’ had not recovered from the injury that had seen him depart the game early at Spurs the previous week and would not only miss this game, but the Scotland game against Russia in midweek and our last home game of the season against Leeds.
Also missing were three of our brightest young stars. Colin Todd and Suggett had been called up to the England Youth team and departed to an international youth tournament in Greece. Bobby Kerr, who had made such an impact from the turn of the year, had sustained a leg break in the first of three thrilling FA Cup ties against Leeds in March and would not return to first-team action for a further seventeen months (sustaining a second leg break midst his comeback).
Another long-term absentee was Charlie Hurley. It was a regular source of discussion and debate at this time that ‘King Charlie’ was still missing from the first-team picture. He had sustained a knee injury earlier in the season, but his continued absence fuelled speculation of a rift between Hurley and McColl. At one time not so long ago, a team without Hurley at its heart was unthinkable!
The news that Jimmy Montgomery (who would go on to hold the mantle of best uncapped keeper in the English game) had been called into the England U23 squad for its tour to Greece and Bulgaria was a source of pride for us Sunderland fans and just reward for Monty, whose levels of performance and ability to produce world-class reflex saves had this young fan (and many more) enraptured. My immediate concern upon hearing this on the journey to the game was: when does he leave – hopefully not till our season is finished!
Sunderland lined up with the ever-adaptable George Herd at right-half and John Parke at left-half in place of messrs Todd and Baxter. I was pleased to see John O’Hare playing inside-right. I reckoned he was the best partner for Neil Martin, but was not sure Ian McColl thought much of the young Scot and was concerned that the press rumours would come to pass and, like Nic Sharkey, McColl would sell as soon as he got a half-decent offer!
Billy Hughes and George Mulhall would play the left flank, which I also thought had potential. Both were explosively quick and dynamic, as well as interchangeable. Hughes could learn a thing or two playing alongside the wily ‘Bullet’ Mulhall.
Fulham chose to attack the Roker End in the first half. Ensconced in the “Boys Enclosure” of that end of the ground, where I considered myself a regular now, I always saw this as a good omen and would maintain for more seasons than I cared to remember that when Sunderland attacked the Roker End in the second half, we always won the game (my immature logic was not encumbered with such things as form, tactics, formations, luck and moments of individual brilliance at this stage of my fledgling Sunderland-supporting career).
Sunderland were on the attack early in this end-of-season tussle, with a back header from Kinnell and what looked like a mishit shot from Neil Martin when well placed.
Martin then pounced on some unusual hesitancy by George Cohen in the Fulham box, winning the ball and teeing up John O’Hare, whose shot from ten yards out was gratefully grabbed by Macedo.
At this point in the game it was all Sunderland, with Herd prompting sharply from half-back and our Scottish forwards of Martin, O’Hare, Mulhall and Hughes looking in fine fettle. We just needed that final touch to match the approach play.
Two well-created chances for Martin and O’Hare saw shots fizz by the same post within a minute of each other. It felt like a goal was coming, and in nineteen minutes it did.
Given the good approach play we had seen up to this point, it was an element of luck that gave Martin his opportunity. John O’Hare won the ball on the right flank and slid a pass to Gauden racing in towards goal. His poor first touch wrong-footed a couple of defenders and saw the ball arrive at Neil Martin’s feet in the box. The big Scot held off a challenge from a defender and dribbled the ball around Macedo for our first goal of the game (and his 24th of the campaign).
Right after the opener, Martin set up O’Hare again from the edge of the box. The young forward did not have his shooting boots on in this game, as he got an awkward strike on the ball and Macedo saved again.
Sunderland kept coming, though, and the lively Hughes pounced and won the ball in midfield, laying it nicely into the path of the onrushing O’Hare. He had a great touch for a big lad ‘on the hoof’ and slid the ball right into Martin’s shooting sights. On this occasion our top scorer hit a powerful shot across Macedo and just past the post.
Jimmy Montgomery had hardly got his gloves dirty until, on thirty-five minutes, Earle had a shot that he easily gathered. Shortly after this, Sunderland deservedly went further ahead. George Mulhall was the architect and creator of this excellent goal. Taking possession of the ball on the left of midfield in his own half, he moved it neatly past his marker and sped away down his wing. Taking his time to allow his forwards to catch him up, he whipped an accurate cross to Neil Martin in a crowded box. Martin could look majestic rising to crosses in the box, and so it was on this occasion, his raking header smashing off the underside of the bar before billowing the net. What a goal this was, cheered raucously by all four corners of Roker Park.
Fulham could not catch a break at this point in the game as Cec Irwin thundered down his wing and fizzed in a low cross that John O’Hare met almost horizontally. It was the perfect diving header and would have put us three goals up but for an excellent save from Macedo – the best uncapped keeper in England. It was seriously good football all round.
Right on half-time Fulham sprang into life as Barrett swung a good corner over and Allan Clarke pounced. This was right in front of the Boys Enclosure and my heart was in my mouth as I anticipated a goal. Clarke powered in a header just under the bar from close range, but Monty reacted cat-like and deflected the ball away. It was a fantastic save and, to give “Sniffer” Clarke his due, a quality header that triggered good applause.
The teams left the field at half-time with no further scoring and loud acclaim from the home crowd.
Fulham came out fired up in the second half, with Haynes at the heart of all their forward forays. Despite being well into the veterans category (34 years old), he displayed a smooth, clever manipulation of the ball and seemed to be playing the game in his own time as he moved into space, controlled the ball and eased it where he wanted it to go. This was impressive but likewise alarming for a young fan with eyes only for a Sunderland win.
One particular passage of play in this period saw Haynes slide a ball into the path of the hard-running Earle on the edge of the box. John Parke slid in from nowhere to intercept, reacting brilliantly to prevent Fulham’s first score of the game. Parke could do little but watch a few minutes later as Haynes was involved in a Fulham goal. From a Sunderland attack, the ball made its way to Cottagers midfielder Conway on the edge of the box. The Eire international didn’t really look to have a shot on, which is why, when he did shoot, it found most of our defence – including Jimmy Montgomery – stationary spectators as the ball sailed into the net.
For fifteen minutes or so the game turned into a “ding-dong affair”, with each team taking it in turns to have a go. Neil Martin just failed to reach a Mulhall free-kick and then Herd intercepted a dangerous free-kick from Robson. Macedo raced out from his line to clear a dangerous pass from Martin to O’Hare and then first Ashurst, then Irwin, made telling tackles to halt Fulham attacks.
The game, though, was put beyond doubt in the eighty-third minute when Robson fouled Martin out on the left wing. George Kinnell hammered the free-kick into the far post and Martin rose highest to cushion a clever header down to the alert Mulhall, who hammered the ball into the back of the net.
I left the ground feeling satisfied that I had seen an entertaining game and some good goals, given that it was an end-of-season contest. The next morning the Sunday sports hacks begged to differ.
Shack, writing in the Sunday People, reported: “Without Martin and Haynes this game would have been flatter than last week’s Yorkshire pud.” John Barrett, writing in the Sunday Sun, described the game as “a canter, an exercise on a muddy pitch with no tension, no bite, nothing. The tackles never went right through, no one patently was going to get injured for the sake of points that had a total irrelevance.” I remember wondering if we had been at the same game!
Barrett did prophetically write: “I was left with the impression that Sunderland are really no better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning, except they have found Kerr who will be great and Todd who will play for England before too long.” Well, he got those bits right.
The win moved Sunderland up to fifteenth in the table, but two defeats to end the season meant a seventeenth-placed finish, with Fulham on two points fewer than us in eighteenth position.
I was unable to make the last home game of the season (a two-nil defeat to Don Revie’s Leeds) and, though I did not realise it then, this would be the last time I would see John O’Hare play in our colours. He was sold far too early and far too cheaply to Brian Clough, with whom he enjoyed a highly successful career at Derby, Leeds and Nottingham Forest, as well as gaining thirteen Scotland caps.
The Football Pink was always an essential purchase on the journey home from the game, and it carried news of another of our young players sold far too soon and on the cheap. Nic Sharkey, in his second game for Leicester, had scored a brace to help the Foxes beat Newcastle 4 – 2 at Filbert Street. It ended the day perfectly!
Division One
Date – 06.05.1967
Venue – Roker Park
Attendance – 18,604Sunderland 3 – 1 Fulham
Goal scorers – Martin 19 & 38 mins; Conway 51 mins; Mulhall 83 mins
Sunderland – Montgomery; Irwin; Ashurst; Herd; Kinnell; Parke; Gauden; O’Hare; Martin; Hughes; Mulhall. Sub – Shoulder.
Fulham – Macedo; Cohen; Dempsey; Robson; Callaghan; Conway; Haynes; Brown; Earle; Clarke; Barrett. Sub – Nichols.
