A lot has been said about the departure of Alan Durban when he was sacked going into the business end of the 1983-84 season. The former Stoke City manager was in the process of building a young squad at Roker with the likes of Ally McCoist and Paul Bracewell learning their trade while he built his new team.
However, a run of seven games without a win that ended with a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford against Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United – via two goals from Kevin Moran after Lee Chapman had given Sunderland
the lead – saw Durban’s time at Roker come to an end.
Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson took over as caretaker for the next fixture at home to Arsenal that ended in a 2-2 draw, but then Len Ashurst finally took charge after multiple links over the years, but time was now apparently right for Ashurst to return to Roker after being such a popular player for well over a decade.
For the remainder of the season, we lost only five of the last thirteen games and lifted Sunderland to 13th in the table, which raised hopes for the following season.
Ashurst went to work on the squad. High-profile departures included Paul Bracewell, who left to join high-flying Everton, and in the first three games, seven players made their Sunderland debut. On the opening day, 3-1 victory at Roker against Lawrie McMenemy’s Southampton, Gary Bennett, Steve Berry, Howard Gayle, and Clive Walker pulled on the red and white for the first time.
In the two defeats that followed, David Hodgson, David Corner, and Roger Wylde made their debut,s and ahead of Sunderland’s trip to the Victoria Ground to take on Stoke City, Ashurst had got off to a solid start with two wins and two defeats in the first seven games.
From kick-off, it was the away side who made all of the early running, with Stoke fortunate not to concede an early lead when Mark Chamberlain headed off the line to stop Mark Proctor scoring directly from a free-kick. But just before the half hour, Proctor split the home defence by putting Clive Walker through, who was Sunderland’s star man on the day, and the former Chelsea winger beat Peter Fox to put the Lads one-up.
It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Sunderland doubled their lead, and just before the hour, Gayle drove the ball home after Walker took advantage of George Berry’s mistake, and it looked like all the points would be heading north.
Walker tied Bould in knots and with a great position to put the game completely out of sight, but his finish was poor and the home side appeared to get the boost they needed. With fifteen minutes remaining, Paul Dyson headed home from a corner to get the nerves jangling, especially in a game where it would not have been unjust if Sunderland had a four or five-goal lead.
With two minutes remaining, the script was almost written when Chamberlain went on a mazy run down the left and future Sunderland defender Steve Bould headed home past Chris Turner to claim a point.
Long after the final whistle, Len Ashurst stood alone on the pitch staring into the empty terraces, wondering how his side hadn’t won the game and claimed their first away win of the season, and said afterwards:
You can never take anything for granted against any team in the First Division. It was frustrating because we played as well in this match as at any time this season. We had it in our grasp and now we will have to see if the players will respond and learn from it.
Canon League Division One
Victoria Ground
Stoke City 2-2 Sunderland
[Dyson 74’, Bould 88’ – Walker 29’, Gayle 58’]
Sunderland: Turner, Venison, Daniel, Bennett, Chisholm, Elliott, Berry, Gayle, Wlyde, Proctor, Walker Substitute not used: West
Stoke City: Fox, Bould, Hemming, James, Dyson, Berry, Painter, Ebanks, Saunders, O’Callaghan, Chamberlain Substitute not used: Parkin
Attendance: 8,882
