Bob Murray had taken a bold gamble appointing Peter Reid to the Sunderland hot-seat. Peter Reid himself took a bold step in accepting a job considered to be one of the most insecure in football at that time. His brief was simple: he had seven games to keep Sunderland in the second division. Two days into the job and his first challenge was a game at Roker Park against a promotion-chasing Sheffield United.
Twenty-four hours earlier, the news of the very real threat of a points deduction being avoided
for illegally fielding a young loanee, Dominic Matteo, in the previous game at Barnsley was a rare bit of good fortune in this difficult season.
Matteo had arrived on the final day of the transfer window in a loan deal that saw goalkeeper Alec Chamberlain go to Liverpool. Reid liked the look of Matteo and the player wanted to stay, but as well as a £2,500 fine, the Football League decreed the player had to return to his parent club.
Reid had former England U21 international Brian Atkinson fit and ready to return to first-team action following two lengthy spells sidelined with a punctured lung and knee ligament damage. The new boss was a fan of the midfielder, recalling his partnership with Paul Bracewell earlier in his career.
If Atkinson was the good news, the continued absence of Gordon Armstrong through injury and Kevin Ball suspended was not so helpful. Gary Bennett though had recovered from injury and was available. Also available was Welsh international Andy Melville. He had been almost ever-present in this campaign and had been away with the Welsh squad in Bulgaria in midweek. Reid did not pick him; in fact Melville was not selected for Reid’s first three games with Bennett and local youngster Dicky Ord his preferred central defence.
Sheffield United arrived at Roker Park in fairly good form, with only three defeats in twenty-five league games. Dave Bassett was harbouring thoughts of a swift return to the top tier following the previous season’s relegation and in Nathan Blake, a £350,000 signing from Cardiff the previous season, he had one of the division’s hot strikers with sixteen goals in this campaign. Ireland’s current goalkeeper Alan Kelly and a lively loanee winger from Nottingham Forest, Kingsley Black were also in the team. Welsh international and ex-Newcastle midfielder Glyn Hodges was also in the squad, though I was pleased to see that he was on the bench to start this game as he was one of those players who always seemed to play well against us!
The Blades had drawn their previous two games and Bassett had urged his team to finish the opposition off in games if promotion was to be achieved.
Reid too had spoken to the press about this issue. In a plain-speaking style we would come to know well he told the Sunderland Echo’s Geoff Storey “Sunderland have drawn ten games at home this season. If they had won five of these they would have been well clear of danger. If they had won all ten they would have been in the promotion places”.
The Echo’s Geoff Storey was predicting a draw as were most of the bookies!
Peter Reid had called for patience and support from the fans. His fist-pumping salute when introduced to the crowd before kick-off was the kind of passion that went down well at Roker Park and certainly ramped up the volume as the game approached kick-off.
The pitch looked bone-hard and there was a very strong wind blowing toward the Roker End as the game commenced, with a healthy crowd that looked well up on previous games in the stadium.
It did not take too long for the fans to see that Reid had the Lads well fired up for this game. Snapping into tackles and attempting to move the ball sharply when in possession, Sunderland took the game to Sheffield.
England U21 international Martin Smith, who had scored seven goals in this campaign prior to this game, was seeing plenty of the ball in the early stages. He was a real talent and on his day a match-winner, which is probably why the Blades defenders delivered some pretty rough treatment throughout the game toward the “Son of Pele”.
Our £600,000 transfer deadline day signing Brett Angell (another player who always seemed to play well against us) was playing his second game in a red and white shirt. There were high hopes this lad could settle and form a partnership with Northern Irish international forward Phil “Tippy” Gray. At this juncture it would be fair to point out Angell arrived at Roker Park having been out injured with a fractured ankle and had not played a lot of football in the previous months. Despite looking a tad rusty, Reid started him in all of the remaining seven games of this season.
Sunderland had a lot of pressure in the first half and certainly were not found wanting in terms of effort. A number of half-chances came and went, along with the almost predictable sight of watching an opposition goal-keeper pull out a man-of-the-match performance. The game was goalless at half-time. Despite a bit of tension in the stands the team was applauded off at half-time for their efforts.
The second half was only a couple of minutes old when Derek Ferguson sustained what looked like a collar-bone injury and was replaced by Martin Gray. (Ferguson seemed dogged with ill-luck on Wearside. I had seen a fair bit of this lad play in Scotland and really felt he was a good fit for us when we bought him. I would concede it never quite happened for him at Sunderland).
A great run by Smith and a characteristic cut-in from the right from Tippy Gray brought the best out of Kelly.
Sheffield had hardly registered a shot in the game when predictably they created a chance that should have brought a goal. On sixty-eight minutes Andy Scott (who had replaced Dane Whitehouse in the first half) was put through with a clear run on goal and only Tony Norman to beat. With Norman speeding out to him, Scott pulled his shot badly wide of the post. I always thought Tony Norman was good in these one-on-one situations; his speed and natural reflexes often thwarted most forwards.
The missed opportunity had been a heart-in-the-mouth moment for most of us in the ground. That season had been littered with games drawn we should have won and games lost we should have drawn. Was this game going the same way?
Reid replaced Angell with Craig Russell on seventy-one minutes.
Russell had lost his place in the team to Angell, but the “Jarrow Arrow” as he was affectionately known had rare pace and an ability to unsettle defenders with his direct running.
Shortly after this Kevin Gage was booked for the visitors by referee Mathieson, who had taken a pretty lenient view on the number of fouls on Martin Smith. Gage was not the only offender; rather his booking was the result of collective offending by him and his team-mates!
This incident was immediately followed by a great through ball (my memory says it was Smith who played this) for Russell to run onto. He was clear and motoring when Tuttle desperately hacked him down from behind. The referee had little option but to produce the red card.
Ten men to play against and fifteen minutes remaining seemed to be a massive advantage, but Bassett reorganised his team and dropped any pretence of trying to win the game. The Blades were a feisty fit bunch and a “man-down mind-set” definitely characterised their play for the remainder of the game.
Kelly in the Sheffield goal made some very good saves in this period and looked like he was not going to be beaten. Phil Gray created a great chance for Steve Agnew and Russell beat his marker for pace after being released by a brilliant Atkinson pass only to see his effort grabbed by Kelly.
With the game heading into the last two minutes Steve Agnew released Russell once more. He raced clear and fired a left-foot rocket that Kelly got hands on to but could not hold. In one of those ‘slow-mo moments’ we held our breath as the ball seemed to take an eternity to trickle over the line.
I have always loved a late goal and cheered this one like it was a cup final winner!
It was a magic moment from the ‘Jarra Arra’ and a deserved three points to kick-start the Reid era on Wearside.
It would be churlish not to give player-of-the-match to Alan Kelly; he was tremendous. But Reid had started as he meant to go on. There was effort and passion, spiced with a bit of skill and creativity and he led us away from the drop in 1995 into an era that none of us in the ground leaping around cheering Craig Russell’s last-gasp goal could have ever imagined.
Endsleigh Division One. Date – 01.04.1995 Venue – Roker Park Attendance – 17,259
Sunderland 1 – 0 Sheffield United (Goal Scorer – Craig Russell 89 mins)
Sunderland – Norman; Kubicki; Scott; Ord; Bennett; Ferguson (M Gray 49 mins); Atkinson; Agnew; Smith; Angell (Russell 71 mins); P Gray. Subs – Preece.
Sheffield United – Kelly; Gage; Nilsson; Chatfield (Hodges 45 mins); Tuttle; Beesley; Veart; Whitehouse (Scott 28 mins); Blake; Black. Subs – Tracey.
