Sunderland were undefeated in eight games as they were at long last beginning to acclimatise to life in the Second Division and starting to move in the right direction up the table.
This was bad news for Swansea who were struggling at the bottom of the division and not sure where their next points were coming from. With a home crowd becoming increasingly disenchanted and volatile at the state
of affairs at the club, Sunderland were arguably arriving in South Wales at a good moment for them to get something out of the game.
Alan Brown named an unchanged team for the eighth game in a row. Swansea manager Trevor Morris rolled the dice, bringing former Newcastle inside-forward and Welsh international Reg Davies back into the side and Roy Saunders at left-half.
A crowd of just over six thousand had gathered on a grim, wet, and cold day, with the pitch looking extremely muddy especially up the centre of the park.
Paul Chester, writing in the Sunday Sun, reported that “the arts of football were forgotten in this tremendous battle, which often promised to erupt into a near riot… as Sunderland found themselves three goals down in fourteen minutes against a team which played with terrific fire and determination”.
Swansea were quickly on the attack from kick-off as Sunderland struggled to get a foothold in the game, forcing three corners in two minutes. The last of these goalkeeper Peter Wakeham fisted out to home winger Len Allchurch, who fired a cross back into the box that Colin Webster got on the end of and headed into the net to put the Swans into the lead.
With their tails up, Wakeham then saved a raking shot from full-back Hughes.
On seven minutes, with Sunderland hardly having struck a blow, Webster scored again for the home side. Colin Nelson had seemingly snuffed out the danger in the box with a sliding tackle, but in the melee Webster managed to poke a shot underneath Nelson’s body that Wakeham did not anticipate until it was too late and the ball was past him into the net.
To compound the miss, Swansea scored a third goal shortly afterwards, with a majestic cross-field pass from Webster to Williams who flicked the ball on to Allchurch. With an audacious shimmy the winger beat Stan Anderson and fired past Wakeham from close range.
It was a devastating fourteen-minute spell of football from the home team, and it could have been much worse but for two very good saves from Wakeham from Webster as he went hunting for his hat-trick.
Then on thirty minutes the moment that swung the game. Anderson played a ball forward to Ian Lawther who looked like he was going to get to it before his marker. The Northern Irishman was sent crashing to the turf by what by all accounts was as crude a tackle as you will see.
The Swansea captain and Welsh international Mel Nurse compounded the foul by striking Lawther as words were exchanged in the immediate aftermath. Referee P.G. Brandwood had little option but to send Nurse straight to the dressing room. The crowd took raucous exception to the sending-off and one fan ran threateningly onto the pitch to confront the referee; thankfully a police officer led the apoplectic Welshman from the pitch and the game then kicked off… in more ways than one!
Jim McNab (never a shrinking violet in a physical game) found himself in the referee’s book alongside home winger Graham Williams as tackles were delivered with a tad more exuberance than prior to the sending-off.
Within five minutes a stunning run that started just inside the Swansea half saw Harry Hooper race forwards and let fly from thirty yards out; the ball flashed past King and nestled into the back of the net. It was a very good goal from the winger, but it enraged the home support even further as well as the home team, whose level of aggression hit new levels.
As the teams left the field for half-time, an array of objects including cushions and apples rained down from the main stand for the second time in the game as the over-worked constable escorted the referee in for what would probably be a welcome cuppa!
The second half resumed, but if the referee had hoped a break might cool the ardour of the home team he was mistaken. If anything their levels of aggression seemed to have heightened along with the home crowd.
The home team maintained a commendable energy and effort throughout the second half as tackles flew in and confrontations erupted at almost every coming together. The home crowd played their part, roaring and complaining at every challenge and haranguing the referee at every decision. As the game continued the crowd took a more active part, hanging onto the ball at every opportunity, refusing to return it, and then when a new ball was introduced throwing the original ball back onto the pitch to stop the game and waste some more time! As if that was not bad enough, some of the home team players started booting the ball into the stands as well as the more usual time-wasting tactics of taking an age over bye-kicks, throw-ins, etc., and going down pole-axed at any opportunity.
These tactics looked like paying dividends, even though on fifty-five minutes Sunderland did score a good second goal. Stan Anderson was the architect as he drove forward at pace out of defence and placed an accurate cross to Ian Lawther in the Swansea box; he despatched the ball into the back of the net, much to the chagrin of the home team and fans who held Lawther responsible for their captain’s dismissal.
The game was in its ninety-fifth minute, as the referee responded to the time-wasting tactics, when Harry Hooper scored a marvellous equaliser.
Picking the ball up around thirty-five yards out, the Pittington-born flyer beat three defenders in a pacey dribble before firing past King for his second goal of the game. It was a sumptuous piece of skill, but it brought no appreciation from the home support who seemed to have been tipped over the edge and once again blessed the pitch with an array of thrown objects as the referee blew for full-time.
The officials were escorted smartly from the field as the home crowd and some of the Swansea players and staff threatened all kinds of mischief.
Sunderland remained ninth in the table and would probably feel they got out of jail to a certain extent.
Swansea’s fighting spirit did get them out of trouble as they finished the season in seventh position, just below Sunderland at the end of the season.
Harry Hooper’s two quality strikes were perhaps lost in the headlines of a battle royal. He had joined Sunderland from Birmingham City for £17,000 in September of that season. He combined real pace and a ferocious shot with some very tricky dribbling skills.
Born in Pittington, County Durham, he was a product of Durham Schools football, Southwick St Hilda’s, and Hylton Colliery FC. With Bill Murray looking to buy a team rather than give youth a chance, he had chosen to follow his dad, a former professional player and now coach, to West Ham in 1949 where he became a very popular player with the Hammers fans. He earned two England under-23 caps (he was the first West Ham player to earn this honour) and six England B caps as well as being chosen in the back-up squad for the 1954 World Cup, but with Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney also vying for the right-wing position, he never played a full international for England.
He was transferred to Wolves for £25,000 in 1956 but after a good first season, where he finished top scorer with nineteen goals, he fell foul of disciplinarian Stan Cullis on a pre-season trip to South Africa and was sold to Birmingham in 1957 for £19,000.
It is a little-known fact outside St Andrews that Birmingham were the first English team to contest a European final as they finished runners-up to Barcelona in the 1959/60 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup; Hooper scored City’s goal in the 4-1 defeat.
Harry Hooper made eighty appearances for Sunderland scoring nineteen goals between September 1960 and May 1963. He was a very popular and effective player with fans and fellow team members. He allegedly used to tell Charlie Hurley that any crosses he sent over for him would arrive with the caseball lace facing outwards so as not to injure or cause misdirection!
Division Two | Date – 17.12.1960 | Venue – Vetch Field | Attendance – 6,557
Swansea Town 3 – 3 Sunderland
Swansea – King; Hughes; Griffiths; P Davies; Nurse; Saunders; Allchurch; R Davies; Reynolds; Webster; Williams.
Sunderland – Wakeham; Nelson; Ashurst; Anderson; Hurley; McNab; Hooper; Fogarty; Lawther; McPheat; Overfield.
Goal Scorers – Webster 3 & 7 mins; Allchurch 14 mins / Hooper 35 & 95 mins; Lawther 55 mins.
