Just six months earlier, it was probably the proudest moment in Malcolm Crosby’s footballing career as he led Sunderland out at Wembley as the manager who had taken them to the final and was ninety minutes away from becoming immortal.
It wasn’t to be, as Liverpool ran out comfortable winners on the day, but then the real work was to begin.
First up, his captain Paul Bracewell was fobbed off by the Sunderland board, so joined Keegan’s revolution up the road. Then Paul Hardyman had a tantrum because
he was left out of the FA Cup final squad and joined Bristol Rovers.
It was compounded by the fact that, after a whole host of players were linked with joining the club, only three signed to join the ranks. Shaun Cunnington from Grimsby Town, John Colquhoun from Hearts and, at weekends, Crosby’s assistant Bobby Ferguson called up his mate Terry Butcher to help us out, as his knee wouldn’t allow him to train.
Things weren’t looking good to begin with, but four wins in the first 14 games confirmed everyone’s fears. It would be another season of struggle in Barclays League Division One (the Championship in new money).
Two days earlier, Crosby’s Sunderland had been demolished 5-2 at Chris Turner’s Peterborough United, with the home side being 4-1 up on the hour mark. With the form the way it was, the table was looking bleak and, after a capitulation at London Road, it was looking like the end for Crosby as Sunderland manager.
However, two days later, it was reported by Geoff Storey in the Sunderland Echo that Crosby would indeed be in the dugout for the next fixture at Roker Park against Leicester City.
This wasn’t because the Roker boss had received a vote of confidence. It was reported “that the board had not been able to come up with a replacement that would appease disgruntled fans”. This led to comments by Aidan Semmens in the Echo, stating: “Malcolm Crosby began his career as Sunderland manager as caretaker. Now it seems he is in a caretaker’s role again”.
There had been no word from chairman Bob Murray or the directors on the manager’s position, so much so that publicly Crosby believed his job was not under immediate threat:
Everybody keeps going on about it, saying the board will sack me. The board has been great. They have let me get on with the job, but unfortunately we haven’t backed it up with results. Whatever decisions people make I, as a manager, have got to accept that decision. If they say enough is enough, I will have to accept that.
Everybody knows that when you become a manager. I’m not worried about being sacked. What worries me is how we can play well in the two previous matches and at times play well against Peterborough, but then let goals in like we have.
I’m worried about the players and I’m concerned for the supporters. They supported us in great numbers again and we’ve let them down with a bad performance. I always knew the job wouldn’t be easy just because we got to Wembley last season.
Ask any manager who has been to Wembley and he’ll confirm you are going to have a tough time next year. The board has never put undue pressure on me.
I’ll just treat it as a normal working day and get on with the job. I’m not going to hide away. It’s very tough at the moment and we’ve just got to keep battling away until we can get it right. People are asking when is it going to happen? That decision is taken out of my hands. My job is to lift everybody’s heads.
A fifth successive away defeat left Sunderland fifth from bottom of Division One. In one of football’s quirks, as the local journalists pondered who might replace Crosby, at the top of the list was the manager of Sunderland’s next opponents.
Leicester City’s Brian Little was the leading contender to take over, but he had almost three years of his current contract to fulfil after agreeing a new deal at the start of that season. Steve Coppell of Crystal Palace and Grimsby’s Alan Buckley were also believed to have had strong support within the Roker boardroom.
Another name on the list was John Beck, who was without a club at the time after leaving Cambridge United, having taken them from Division Four to almost the Premier League.
But Sunderland couldn’t afford to be seen poaching other clubs’ managers and they wanted to avoid the situation of twelve months prior when Denis Smith was dismissed without a readymade replacement in sight.
