The ‘Bank of England team’ had gone close to success in 1954/55. A thrilling run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup before a one-nil defeat to Man City at Villa Park had been accompanied by a good stab at the league title. From late September till mid-March, we had not been out of the top three as we vied with Chelsea and Wolves for top spot.
The cup run had become a distraction to some of the players, though, and from mid-March, our league campaign stuttered, and we finished fourth.
The 1955/56 campaign
had got off to a pretty good start, with eight wins and three defeats. We were undefeated at Roker Park and had two good victories in the bag from games at Birmingham and Aston Villa.
Coming into this game at White Hart Lane, we had scored thirty goals in eleven games, with Charlie ‘Cannonball’ Fleming on nine goals, Ken Chisholm on seven, and Len Shackleton on five goals. If the ‘goals for’ column was looking good at this stage of the season, a quick glance at the ‘goals against’ column would give an indication of where our difficulties for the rest of the season might lie, with twenty-one goals conceded.
Spurs had not started the season well and found themselves ensconced at the bottom of the table, with Huddersfield Town just above them in the relegation positions.
Stan Anderson recalled this period in his illuminating autobiography ‘Captain of the North’. It was the best run in the top tier he would ever experience, and he had real hope that they could put the disappointment of the previous season behind them and go on to sustain a title challenge, hopefully not becoming distracted with the FA Cup.
Anderson acknowledged there was a feeling in the dressing room from some players (Len Shackleton in particular) that it was impossible to win both the league title and the FA Cup. The young half-back felt at the time that the previous season had seen Sunderland’s legitimate title challenge fade as some became more focused on the cup and Wembley. He might have been hoping this expensively assembled team could grasp the challenge and that history did not repeat itself!
A good amount of rain had fallen in the days prior to this game, and a strong wind was blowing as the game kicked off.
Argus, writing in the Football Echo, noted “the antics of the players” indicated the pitch was “little better than an ice rink”.
After a fairly even start, Sunderland took the lead on fourteen minutes with a cracking team goal. Stan Anderson found Billy Bingham with a good pass out of defence. Bingham directed an accurate pass to Ken Chisholm, who laid off a well-timed ball right into the path of the on-rushing ‘Cannonball’ Fleming. His right-foot drive flew in off the inside of the post, giving Ditchburn in the Spurs goal no chance.
Fleming might have scored two more goals as Sunderland looked to press home their advantage, but the chances went a-begging, and there was no further scoring up to half-time.
Without ever being a great game, the contest moved to and fro in the first phase of the second half, with Fraser in the Sunderland goal the busier of the two keepers.
On sixty-seven minutes, the ‘Clown Prince’ made a characteristic impact on the game.
With a Sunderland attack repelled, the ball had gone out to the touchline level with Spurs’ eighteen-yard box. Len Shackleton retrieved the ball and then slalomed around three defenders in a mazy run before slamming the ball past Ditchburn from close range. If the first goal had been a good team effort, the second was down to pure individual brilliance.
Spurs, though, battled back, and just four minutes later, winger George Robb scored with a header at the far post. Spurs had the wind in their sails, and five minutes later, after relentless pressure, centre-forward Dave Dunmore crashed a header off the bar, with inside-forward Johnny Brooks reacting first to crash the ball over the line to level the scores.
The Spurs fans were still celebrating when, less than a minute later, Ted Purdon intercepted a pass in the box, controlled the ball, and swivelled to flash an angled shot across Ditchburn and in at the far post to win the points for Sunderland and send them to the top of the league.
The 36,396 crowd had witnessed four goals in a crazy ten-minute spell of the second half. Argus commented “from a very moderate beginning indeed this game built up to a rousing finish”. He made Sunderland keeper Willie Fraser player-of-the-match “with a series of brilliant saves”.
So we sat proudly at the top of the table. Despite drawing all three of our next games, we stayed in the top two alongside the eventual title winners, Manchester United.
A shocking eight-two defeat at Kenilworth Road bumped us down to fifth in mid-November, as we went on a numbing run of two wins in thirteen games up to early January. This included a shocking six-one defeat to Newcastle at Roker Park on Christmas Eve, followed by a three-one defeat on the 27th of December that plummeted the Lads to 10th in the table. What a Christmas!
Despite not necessarily being out of the running for the title, Stan Anderson’s observation that the dressing room would become distracted by the FA Cup proved correct. Despite getting as high as fourth in the second half of the season, the cup appeared to be the priority for some in the team as another thrilling run saw the Lads knock out Newcastle at St James’ Park in the quarter-finals.
If the title was sacrificed for the FA Cup, history shows that in the semi-final with Birmingham City at Hillsborough, we were beaten by three goals to nil. Hillsborough was overwhelmingly packed with Sunderland fans; unfortunately, the team did not show up in a performance that matched this inconsistent season.
Sunderland finished ninth in the table; it could have been so much more, according to Stan Anderson.
In 1980/81, we were top of Division One for two games at the very start of the season, and that has been it to present day! The start we have made this season augurs well for the seasons ahead; who would bet that in the not-too-distant future, we will find ourselves perched at the pinnacle of the top tier once again, as we did in October 1955!
Division One | Date: 22.10.1955 | Venue: White Hart Lane | Attendance: 36,396
Spurs 2 – 3 Sunderland
Goal Scorers: Fleming 14 mins; Shackleton 67 mins; Robb 71 mins; Brooks 76 mins; Purdon 77 mins.
Spurs: Ditchburn; Baker; Hopkin; Blanchflower; Clarke; Marchi; Walker; Brooks; Dunmore; Bailey; Robb.Sunderland: Fraser; McDonald; Hedley; Anderson; Daniel; Aitken; Bingham; Fleming; Purdon; Chisholm; Shackleton.
