Sunderland’s pursuit of a first ever promotion entered the final straight in 1963/1964 and on this day, they returned to top spot in Division Two courtesy of a comprehensive victory over Leyton Orient.
The Lads had won five of their last seven and had already been at the summit for a brief period at the beginning of the month, with continuity being the key for manager Alan Brown. Fans of the era can often reel off the usual starting eleven without even thinking, so regularly was it seen, but there did have to be the odd change along the way and that was the case for the visit of Orient, with Brian Usher having to miss out.
The winger had been knocked over by a car whilst walking to Roker Park ahead of a glamour friendly against Benfica in midweek and was left badly shaken by the incident.
Tommy Mitchinson was therefore drafted in to start against the Portuguese champions and retained his spot upon the resumption of the league schedule — although he too would’ve been sitting out had youth teamer John O’Hare not misunderstood a directive from Brown.
The young Scot came on at half time in the exhibition game and did so well that he was about to be handed a first team debut — the only problem being that by the time he heard about it, he was nearly 150 miles away from Wearside!
Thinking that he’d been allowed the weekend off, he went back to his native Dumbartonshire on the Friday and by Saturday afternoon was at home with his feet up. It was at that point that his father burst in and told him it had just been broadcast on the radio that he was supposed to be playing at Roker Park instead of relaxing, and that he’d inadvertently left the door open for Mitchinson to make his first start of the season instead.
A seemingly unperturbed O’Hare later noted that the team “won anyway”, and if nothing else the mix up meant that he was able to tell his family first hand about the goal he’d just scored against Eusebio and company, and to talk them through the handful of newspaper clippings he’d brought with him that outlined a sensational 5-3 win.
That victory over the European giants gave Sunderland a huge confidence boost and they carried that on, systematically taking Orient apart with the minimum of fuss.
Martin Harvey gave the type of performance that Brown hoped would justify his decision to sell Stan Anderson ten days earlier, with Cec Irwin and Len Ashurst backing him up with similarly impressive showings. Elsewhere, Charlie Hurley was his usual majestic self and it was from a George Mulhall free kick that he headed in after six minutes to give his side the lead.
The second goal didn’t take long either, and whilst a move involving Irwin and Johnny Crossan initially seemed to be losing momentum, things suddenly picked up again when the former whipped the ball across goal and found Mulhall on the left, who curled the home past goalkeeper Mike Pinner.
With Sid Bishop towering over the diminutive Nick Sharkey, Sunderland had to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible, yet the chances still came.
It seemed as if another goal would arrive at any moment, but what the Black Cats hadn’t considered was that it could be at the wrong end of the pitch — Joe Elwood catching them out at the back and calmly beating Jimmy Montgomery when a number of players piled forward. However, rather than shut up shop thereafter, Sunderland concluded that attack was still the best form of defence and three minutes later, we restored our two-goal advantage.
Mitchinson had been revelling in his unexpected selection and having weaved past a string of tackles, he looked ready to pull the trigger, but whilst he was denied the opportunity due to being fouled by Jim Scott, Crossan was able to go for goal instead when the resultant free kick was touched over to him by Harvey. His effort was good, and flew past Pinner, but the examination was far from over for the overworked stopper.
The second half saw Sunderland continue to push forward, and following a George Herd shot that came off the bar, another flurry of attempts kept Pinner busy.
Herd was the one most frustrated by his saves until their own mini-battle concluded with the Scot lashing past him with real feeling in the sixty sixth minute, and from then on in it was damage limitation, with Pinner putting on a virtual one-man show as he repelled Mitchinson and Sharkey with yet more fine work.
The match proved to be Mitchinson’s only outing of the campaign, with Usher coming back the following week and allowing Brown to stick with a settled side for most of the run-in.
O’Hare, meanwhile, had to wait until 1964 for his breakthrough, although ostensibly the gaffer didn’t hold the blunder against him — he just preferred to show faith with that lauded eleven of Montgomery, Irwin, Ashurst, Harvey, Hurley, McNab, Usher, Herd, Sharkey, Crossan and Mulhall, who by the time of the return game in Leyton in April were near enough home and hosed in the promotion chase.
Saturday 16 November 1963
Football League Division Two
Roker Park
Attendance: 35,004
Sunderland 4 (Hurley 6’, Mulhall 8’, Crossan 37’, Herd 65’)
Leyton Orient 1 (Elwood 35’)
Sunderland: Montgomery, Irwin, Ashurst; Harvey, Hurley, McNab; Mitchinson, Herd, Sharkey; Crossan, Mulhall
