Even Anfield couldn’t have heard many roars as loud as the one that went up at the end of this match — only this time it wasn’t from The Kop but from the 6,000 travelling Sunderland fans at the Anfield Road end.
The Lads needed to get something out of this game to avoid relegation from the top flight.
They’d previously been relegated after just one season in Division One following promotion four years earlier, so they were desperate to keep a foot hold in the elite league. As in the final game of that
last relegation season, the match was on Merseyside, only this time at The Reds’ home ground, and not Everton.
The man who made sure we didn’t have to rely on events elsewhere, was ‘Little’ Stan Cummins. He was to fly out that following week for his season with Seattle Sounders, leaving the Sunderland faithful with a glorious memory to relive throughout the summer.
Cummins scored many a vital goal for us, including the clinching goal at the end of the previous season as we beat West Ham at home to a packed out crowd — I know, because I was locked outside with a gate of over 20,000 more people than the usual attendance. This one was just as sweet, and perhaps more impressive, in the thirty second minute.
Gary Rowell started the move just inside the Liverpool half, which sent Cummins down the left wing.
He’d already shown the Reds that he was in the mood, with several determined runs down the flank, but Colin Irwin ignored the warning signs and insisted in backing off from the little magician as he ran into the box, and the extra yard of space was all the encouragement Cummins needed to drive a rising shot past Ray Clemence’s near post.
It was Sunderland’s last real chance, although Alan Brown and Rowell sent headers over the bar, but at the same time, Liverpool never looked like pulling a goal back.
At the start of the day, everyone thought that Sunderland’s poor away form would be the death of them, but they also didn’t expect a Liverpool side lacking some experienced players, and some actually on the pitch, such as Terry McDermott and Ray Kennedy, whose minds were clearly elsewhere.
They still had two league games left and a European Cup Final to prepare for, which I suppose is some indication of where their minds were at. Compare that to a Sunderland team that had a steely determination and a fighting attitude that saw them achieve their first victory at Anfield for twenty years.
The Lads did come in for a mini-siege late on, but Rob Hindmarch and Shaun Elliott were outstanding and the final statistics will show that Sunderland had seven corners to Liverpool’s two, and that Barry Siddall wasn’t forced into a serious save in the whole game.
Early on, there were signs that Liverpool weren’t willing to match the aggression of the four Sunderland midfielders strung across the pitch, with the exception of Alan Hansen, who had a good game, and just two minutes before Cummins’ goal, had played a one-two with Ray Kennedy and fired his shot against the bar from twenty five yards.
The Black Cats’ tough tackling and covering made sure there were very few chances for Liverpool for most of the game. The only other scare came just before half time when Hindmarch flattened Howard Gayle in the box, but luckily the referee deemed it worthy of a word for the defender, and not a penalty.
The second half action was limited, but not off the pitch as other scores filtered through from Norwich and Leicester.
As it turned out, and against the odds, Sunderland had decided their own destiny.
In hindsight, if the Lads had lost, we would’ve still stayed up on goal difference, but they weren’t to know this. Norwich — who finished third bottom — had lost at home to second-bottom Leicester and it was a very sweet moment for the 6,000 travelling fans that deserved top flight football.
The survival boosted Mick Docherty’s chances of getting the manager’s job as Tom Cowie had sacked Ken Knighton and Frank Clark four games earlier. However, the brilliant result perhaps shouldn’t be allowed to paper over some large cracks, as it was achieved against a below-par Liverpool team and there would be a lot of work to do to avoid being in a similar position in twelve months’ time.
2 May 1981
Football League Division One
Anfield
Liverpool 0
Sunderland 1 (Cummins)
Sunderland: Siddall, Hindmarch, Hinnagan; Bolton, Elliott, Chisholm (Allardyce); Rowell, Buckley, Cummins; Ritchie, Brown
