Within the space of a couple of months, the outlook of Sunderland AFC was beginning to change quickly.
A disastrous defeat at Barnsley saw the end of Mick Buxton’s reign as Sunderland manager, and left the club in a position where relegation to the third tier of English football for the second time in our history was looking increasingly likely.
For the first time since Denis Smith arrived from York City in the summer of 1987, the club did not appoint from within to find Buxton’s successor. To most
people’s surprise, they managed to convince former England and Everton midfielder Peter Reid to navigate the final seven games to keep the club in the second tier.
After huge wins against the likes of Sheffield United and fellow strugglers Swindon Town, who were managed by Reid’s former England teammate Steve McMahon, Reid met the first objective with flying colours, and survival was confirmed – but what was next?
The club convinced the former Manchester City player-manager to sign a two-year contract, but that didn’t come without assurances he would be provided with as big a transfer pot to strengthen the team as possible. Unfortunately, that depended on one or two variables.
The biggest of these variables was the success of Sunderland’s request for a further extension to the all-seater deadline. If Roker was forced to go all-seater in the summer of 1995, ground capacity would have been reduced from just over 22,000 to under 14,000
This included the installation of 6,000 temporary seats, if standing on the Roker Park terraces for the next two seasons was not permitted by the Football League.
The plans for a 34,000 all-seater stadium at the former Wearmouth Colliery site were in the very early stages at this time, but this uncertainty, combined with the lack of substantial investment from outside the boardroom, there was a concern around Reid’s future as well as his ability to improve the squad.
It was reported that Reid had telephone talks with chairman John Featherstone to discuss his plans, but Featherstone warned that the club’s immediate future is in the hands of the Football Licensing Authority and the call they were about to make.
We are not going to force their hand as we have been told it could be the end of June before there is any decision. It could come earlier but we have had to budget for next season on crowds of 14,000. If the FLA gives another dispensation and we can attract crowds of 22,000, then there will be money to spare.
If we win our first four games we could soon have a full house for our home games and that should bring in a lot of extra revenue. The play-offs have to be our minimum aim but it is paramount that we give the manager as much money as possible for new players. We have done our outline budget and I will be sitting down with Peter today to talk things through.
