Rangers arrived at Roker Park following a chastening 4-1 defeat at home to bottom-of-the-table Charlton the previous Saturday. It was a surprise result and I thought it could easily work against us as they
looked to bounce back.
I was both disappointed but secretly pleased to learn that the young and hugely talented Rodney Marsh would not play; the injury that had kept him out of the previous game had still not healed. Marsh had been garnering a great reputation and I had been looking forward to seeing him on our turf, but most of all I wanted a Sunderland victory and his absence, I thought, gave us more of a chance.
As I considered the Rangers team warming up, there was still plenty to be wary of. Phil Parkes in goal was a young keeper with a huge future in the game. Bob Hazell at centre-half was big, black, and hard as nails, but could play a bit and was quick across the grass. Terry Venables in midfield was a cultured, creative ball-player who would also go on to fashion a great career in the game. Up front, Mick Leach, an Eire international, was a wily, lively forward who always played well against us. Frank Saul, the ex-Spurs centre-forward, came in for Marsh; his experience and reputation as a scorer and creator had been fashioned in Spurs’ double-winning team of 1960/61. He and Leach would be a real challenge for our young central defensive pairing.
QPR also had a young Gerry Francis in their midfield alongside Venables, a player I would come to covet as the seasons rolled on. Another player I would have loved to have seen in our jersey was Dave Clement. I watched him go through his warm-up and imagined him playing alongside our young centre-backs with Monty behind them in goal. He was a fast and teak-hard right-back with a decisive tackle and a good eye for a pass; he loved a gallop forward and lacked nothing in attitude and energy. Our recent signing at right-back, Dick Malone, had not quite worked his way into my “desired best eleven” just yet!
Sadly, after a career that78 included England caps, Dave Clement took his own life in March 1982 following a career-ending injury.
QPR’s manager Les Allen was an interesting character, also a member of Spurs’ double-winning team of 1960/61; he was the head of a legendary footballing family. His sons Bradley and Clive would both play professionally and Clive would start his career at QPR before going on to become an England international. Les’s brother Dennis also played professionally and his sons Paul and Martin were professional players who also had good careers in the game.
Sunderland fielded an unchanged team from our last-minute victory at Ewood Park the week before this game. Bobby Kerr’s goal had been a perfect prelude to this challenge and moved us up to ninth in the table. I was sincerely hoping that we had put our streaky start behind us and we were going to mount a sustained challenge for promotion back to the top-flight.
Cec Irwin continued at left-back in the absence of Len Ashurst. Recent signing Dick Malone, who had been injured on his debut in October, was starting only his fourth game. Richie Pitt and Colin Todd continued in central defence. Todd in particular had grown into a defender of enormous potential and had been made captain for this season. Martin Harvey continued in the centre of midfield and I thought was doing a solid, unfussy job quite well – not only working well with Porterfield and Kerr, but slotting in for Todd when he went on his rampaging runs forward with the ball. Brian Chambers would play just in front of Harvey; he had made his debut in October of this season and was also considered a player of good potential at this stage in his career. I keenly followed Chambers and Mick McGiven’s progress from youth to first team, as they had both attended the same Newcastle grammar school as myself and were very real role models for this aspiring Sunderland (no other team would do) central midfielder!
Up front the buccaneering Billy Hughes and the veteran Joe Baker. England international Baker had not set the grass on fire in his first (part) season but had started this campaign reasonably well and came into this game on six goals. Three youngsters of tremendous potential – Mick McGiven, Bobby Park, and Dennis Tueart – were carrying knocks and not available for this game. The veteran and also former England international Gordon “General” Harris was the substitute.
I remember this game as one of the first I watched from the Fulwell End. I had been a regular in the Boys’ Enclosure of the Roker End from March 1966, but now that I was a year into grammar school and intrigued by all the noise and chanting in our popular stand I was drawn towards the mayhem. With my dyed Doc Martens and second-hand Harrington jacket that was a tad too big for me and sporting a brand-new crew-cut (Dad wouldn’t let me get a skinhead cut) I took my place just down from the liveliest central section, where a number of other lads and lasses roundabout my age had gathered. This would become my new home for a couple of seasons and was all part of my journey into the “well-rounded fan” I am today some sixty years later!
Sunderland started the game attacking the Fulwell End and started well. We were knocking the ball about with accuracy and pace. A good move saw Todd break from defence and slide a pass to Harvey; he in turn found Porterfield, who feinted right but shot with his left from outside the box – the ball flew just past the post.
QPR came into the game with a clever free-kick from Busby that landed invitingly to Hunt, who blasted a shot from twelve yards; no worries though – Monty sprang to smother the ball.
Harvey then fed Porterfield with a cracking left-foot pass. Many thought the Northern Irish international was “all right foot” but his spell in midfield had shown him to be nothing of the sort! Porterfield burst away down the left and beat Clement with a clever shimmy before arrowing a sharp pass to Baker who had ghosted into the near post. His attempt was cleared for a corner that was then cleared, but only to Cec Irwin. The big full-back did not stand on ceremony and fizzed a cross straight back into the danger area that found the head of Baker rushing in to dispatch the ball into the back of the net for a deserved opening goal.
Roker Park roared its approval at the goal and our start to this game twelve minutes in.
Rangers looked a bit shaky in defence but were coming forward with a bit of menace, with Irwin and Malone under quite a bit of pressure.
Twice in quick succession Richie Pitt got timely tackles on Saul in our box to prevent any further damage.
Billy Hughes rattled Phil Parkes in the Rangers goal. Hughesie nipped in and nicked the ball away from Parkes. Cue a bit of mayhem in their box, but a defender did manage to deflect the goal-bound prod to safety.
On twenty-three minutes an awkwardly bouncing ball in our box caused a bit of havoc, but Monty rescued the situation again with a decisive grab of the ball whilst surrounded by opposition players.
Colin Todd, who was having a storming game, then showed his class under pressure as he coolly directed a header to Dick Malone from a Venables free-kick. The Londoners were certainly not here to “park the bus” and it was making for an exciting game.
On twenty-seven minutes a nasty-looking tackle by Alan Harris on Bobby Kerr, who had been giving him a bit of a rinsing down that side of the field, saw the defender spoken to at some length by the referee. From where I saw it, the tackle warranted a booking if not a sending-off. After some on-field treatment Kerr was carried from the field and Gordon Harris came on.
I wondered about the balance of our attack with this enforced substitution; many years previous Harris had been a flying winger at Burnley, but he was now in the twilight of his career and speed was not the first thing that came to mind when you watched him play. Brian Chambers moved sideways to allow Harris to join Harvey in the centre of our midfield.
In fairness to Harris he went on to have quite an effective game, working quite well with Harvey and Porterfield.
Right after this incident Rangers almost drew level. Mick Leach caught Monty off his line with a floated shot. I had a good view of this one and it looked for all the world like our goalkeeper had decided the shot was going well high and wide as he sort of saluted the ball sailing past him. His apparent surprise as he almost casually turned to see the ball crash off the crossbar and into his hands made me wish I had been in the Boys’ Enclosure to see his face up close!
The game continued end-to-end and as we came into the last knockings of a good first half we scored our second goal.
The move started with a trademark carry out of defence by Colin Todd. He took the ball almost forty yards before playing a well-timed ball to Harris, slicing the QPR defence open. The “General” stroked an equally perfectly weighted cross to Hughes steaming in at the back post who headed powerfully into an empty net. It was a cracking goal and we had the grand sight of Hughesie’s raised two-handed strut that he saluted all his goals with (I loved those idiosyncrasies of the players I adored and cannot hear Billy Hughes’ name without picturing him as such).
I thought we were well worth our lead but did not think Rangers were finished with this game at half-time.
The second half was a mirror image of the first for all bar the last ten minutes or so – end-to-end with Todd and Pitt as well as Montgomery in goal keeping a lively QPR attack at bay. Likewise a Sunderland attack who were springing from every angle, playing with invention and a bit of dash.
Approximately ten minutes into the second half, the alert Ian Porterfield pounced on an attempted Bob Hazell clearance. In a flash he had controlled and sped past a defender only to be sent crashing to the turf in the box for an obvious penalty. Joe Baker stepped up and confidently hammered the spot-kick past Parkes for our third goal of the game. Porterfield was one of the star performers in this game, as he played the contest in his own time and with the style and simplicity that often infused his game.
Despite the three-goal deficit the Londoners continued to play neat, sharp stuff and on seventy-five minutes their best player on the day Mick Leach scored a poacher’s goal, just beating Monty to a long angled pass from Venables that he steered into the goal with a flick of his head.
Venables then sliced a chance well wide when well-placed that could have made the last ten minutes a lot more nerve-wracking than they were.
We remained in ninth position as Baker took his tally of goals to eight for the season. Two wins in a row and three undefeated I descended the Fulwell End steps and out into the cold December evening feeling sure that we were going to have a late run to the First Division.
In the press later in the week it emerged that the players had been allowed a golf day at Hexham for going three games undefeated. Alan Brown, not noted for his humour or belief that golf was good for footballers, joked that he had promised this if the players went three games undefeated. He said “it’s not so much a reward as a little joking between the lads and I”. Nonetheless, despite only scoring three goals in the previous five home games this win amounted to nine points from a possible twelve.
Journal reporter Ken Gorman waxed lyrical about the performance of Colin Todd: “If anyone deserved his bonus it was skipper Colin Todd. Defying a stomach bug and a badly bruised thigh Todd was magnificent. In defence his granite tackling blunted Rangers’ attacking sharpness. He also found time to launch into those irresistible forward forays”.
Prophetically Gorman wondered how long it would be before the top-tier big boys came calling and whether Sunderland could resist a big-money offer given they were £220,000 in the red.
Brian Clough and Derby County paid a record-for-a-defender fee of £170,000 for Todd in February of this season. Upon landing the player Clough said he would have paid much more and they had got a bargain!
The sale was a body blow to the rank-and-file support at the time – first Colin Suggett and then Todd! It seemed to take all the wind out of our sails that the purchase of Dick Malone and Dave Watson (our first £100,000 buy) had triggered. We also finished the season without Joe Baker who left in January 1971 to rejoin Hibs for £30,000 having scored ten goals that term; the purchase of Dave Watson to play centre-forward probably speeded up that exit.
Our promotion challenge never really got going as we continued to show streaky form. We finished in thirteenth position just a point worse off than QPR, but better times were coming for both teams, with a number of those involved in this game making valuable contributions to that success.
Division Two | Date – 05.12.1970 | Venue – Roker Park | Attendance – 14,891
Sunderland 3 – 1 QPR
Goal scorers – Baker 12 mins & 55 min pen; Hughes 37 mins; Leach 75 mins
Sunderland – Montgomery; Malone; Irwin; Pitt; Todd; Kerr (G. Harris 27 mins); Harvey; Chambers; Porterfield; Hughes; Baker.QPR – Parkes; Clement; A. Harris; Hazell; Hunt; Busby; Francis; Venables; Ferguson; Leach; Saul. Sub – Mobley.
