Believe it or not, Carlisle United were a difficult proposition for Sunderland in the early to mid-1970s. Even when we beat them, there was nothing easy about it, and so it proved in this contest. Only one other team beat us at Roker Park this season (Crystal Palace in the sixth round of the FA Cup). Carlisle had come to Roker Park pre-season in the Anglo-Italian Cup and beat us by the only goal of the game. We just could not put our chances away in that game, and they buried the one opportunity
that came their way! As defending FA Cup holders, they put us out of the FA Cup at Roker Park in 1974 and then beat us at Burnden Park to help scupper our promotion chances in that same season. I really did not like playing Carlisle in this period!
Sunderland came into this game in second position in the second tier, unbeaten at home in the league and just starting to hit our straps.
Bob Stokoe had a fitness worry over Ian Porterfield, with a niggling toe injury following the victory at Ewood Park the previous week. He was eventually passed fit to play.
Porterfield had made an almost miraculous return from a serious car crash halfway through the previous season. The crash and injuries sustained interrupted his partnership with Tony Towers and Bobby Kerr in midfield, which was at times a thing of absolute beauty. It had also been rumoured that a Scotland call-up was on the cards.
It would be fair to say, in this season, Porter’ was not quite back to those levels, but I thought there were definitely signs that this Rolls-Royce of a player might get back to something like his silky best.
Jeff Clarke and Bobby Moncur were showing signs that their partnership in the centre of defence would come good. Joe Bolton had won his battle with the redoubtable Ron Guthrie for the left-back slot, and Dick Malone was still doing Dick Malone things, going on to have his best season ever in our jersey, in my opinion.
Jimmy Montgomery, who had been out of the team in favour of Trevor Swinburne at the start of the season but had won his way back to first choice, would celebrate his five hundredth appearance for the Lads in this game.
Talking to John Donaghue in the Journal, Monty’ said, “I have always tried to look after myself off the field and think I am getting the benefit of that now. There is still a lot left in me, like I hope another two hundred games.”
Up front, Billy Hughes continued his rehabilitation back into the team following injury, alongside Vic Halom and Pop Robson. All three only had one goal each to their name this season, but it has to be said they were playing well.
Carlisle boasted the enigma that was Martin Burleigh in goal. This lad had played a small number of games for Newcastle and was a youngster of enormous promise. He had fallen out with Joe Harvey (manager) when he returned from the close season well over-weight. He actually walked out of the club, but was rehabilitated, only to commit the same offence the following close season. After a loan spell at Darlington, he played for Carlisle in this campaign, before going on to provide excellent service to Darlington and Hartlepool.
In the centre of Carlisle’s defence was ‘Big Bill Green’, whose performances were getting him noticed by the bigger clubs. Green was out of the same Newcastle grammar school as Sunderland players Brian Chambers and Mick McGiven. That school also happened to be the school I went to, so I followed his career, (as well as Chambers and McGiven’s).
Carlisle were fresh from their first away win of the season against Bristol Rovers, and their only absentee for this game was manager Alan Ashman, who had gone down with a heavy cold.
Despite persistent and heavy rain, Sunderland’s second-biggest crowd of the season turned up and created a raucous atmosphere under the lights.
For the best part of seventy-eight minutes, Sunderland delivered a rip-roaring performance that saw them charge into a three-goal lead.
Sunderland swarmed all over the Cumbrians right from the kick-off and almost took the lead on five minutes when Tony Towers, who had started the match like a man possessed, had an excellent volley saved by Burleigh, diving full length.
Sunderland did not give the visitors a moment to settle and were relentless in their search for the opener.
The lead came in twelve minutes. Despite all of the great play from the Black Cats, it was an error that led to the opener. The usually reliable John Gorman misplaced a pass that Brian Robson stretched to intercept. Pop’ did stop the ball but looked like, in stretching, he was going to lose his balance. With some deft and fast footwork, he managed to right himself and, in that split-second, he lashed a rising left-foot thunderbolt into the roof of the net. It was no more than Sunderland deserved.
In a brief moment of respite for the Carlisle defence, Bill Green got on the end of an Eddie Spearitt free-kick to flash a header just past the post.
Sunderland’s second goal was coming for half an hour before it did. On twenty-nine minutes, Burleigh produced a brilliant double save from Halom and Kerr, both of whom were having tremendous games. Two minutes after this, Pop Robson had a trademark electric dart between two defenders, bursting into the box. They both had an illegal go at him, giving the referee no option but to blow for a penalty kick. Tony Towers hammered his first penalty and fourth goal of the season, well out of reach of the sprawling goalkeeper.
Carlisle managed to get to half-time without conceding again, but when Burleigh wasn’t saving goal attempts, a defender was getting a foot in or throwing himself at the ball in an increasingly frantic rearguard action.
Carlisle did reorganise for the second half, going long every chance they got and pushing up the pitch a little more too, bypassing our dominant midfield. This put a bit more pressure on our defence, in which Jeff Clarke showed up quite well during this period, winning aerial duels, getting timely interventions, and winning the ball back and using it well.
On sixty-three minutes, following a bit of sustained Sunderland pressure, Bobby Kerr fizzed a low, hard corner. Vic Halom, whose touch and finesse was much on show in this game, stepped over the flight of the ball, pulling a couple of defenders in his direction. Billy Hughes, who had enjoyed a storming game, came up behind him and slammed the ball into the back of the net with a lovely left-foot connection for our third goal of the night.
Three goals down and going into the closing moments of the game, most teams would just take the beating, but not Carlisle!
They kept plugging away and, on seventy-eight minutes, they got a lucky break. Jimmy Montgomery gathered a long ball a little awkwardly. With Mick Barry in close attendance, Monty went to sidestep him, to kick the ball from hand. He did not have complete control of the ball and ended up spilling it invitingly for the alert Barry to tap the ball into the back of the net.
Carlisle were enlivened by their goal, and Barry pulled a great save out of Monty’. Then Billy Hughes careered into the Carlisle box, leaving defenders in his wake, to present Bobby Kerr with the simplest of chances.
Unusually, the little midfielder rushed his attempt and a good chance was wasted.
Another long ball saw Ian Porterfield and a Carlisle forward vying for a bouncing ball just inside our box. The referee, Alan Porter, awarded a penalty kick. I saw no handball and would have thought I had a good view of the incident. Sadly, I was not refereeing the game!
Having literally blown Carlisle away for seventy-eight minutes, we suddenly looked vulnerable and a degree of anxiety began to permeate in the crowd. Joe Laidlaw slammed home the penalty, and we buckled in for the last few minutes.
We shouldn’t have really worried. This team was built of stern stuff, and it was Sunderland who looked most like scoring again. Dick Malone and Bobby Kerr exchanged passes, Malone sent over a smashing cross with Pop Robson connecting brilliantly to send a shot goalwards. It pulled the best save of the night from Burleigh, who once again was at full stretch to deny the lively Robson.
Sunderland maintained their position just behind Notts County at the top of the league.
Tony Towers had been at his majestic best, with the kind of performance that would make him an England player by the end of this season. Kerr and Porterfield had joined in the midfield dominance. I was particularly impressed with Vic Halom, who delivered a typically rampant centre-forward display, peppered with lovely moments of exquisite touch and lay-offs. Pop Robson had been at his elusive best, always available for the ball and a threat in the opposition box all night. Billy Hughes, too, had contributed an enormous amount to our attacking efforts and deserved his goal.
Bill Green was tortured by Halom for most of the night, but he did get his big move, to West Ham United in June 1976. He was next seen on the Roker Park paddock attempting to stem the tide in a six-goal hammering of the Irons in March 1977 as Sunderland ran riot.
Len Hethrington, writing in the Evening Chronicle, had this to say: “Bob Stokoe, who liked a win to be accompanied by a clean slate, hinted that he had things to say to his team once the dressing room was closed.” He also indicated Stokoe would be watching a strong reserve team at Mansfield the next night, with a view to the top-of-the-table clash against Notts County.
For the record, that reserve team was Swinburne; Rowell; Henderson; Ashurst; Elliott; Mitchell; Gibb; Longhorn; Finney; Hamilton; Holden. Sub – Stronach.
Jimmy Montgomery’s night was spoiled to a degree by his handling error. He did not make a further two hundred appearances for Sunderland as he had hoped, but did go on to make a remarkable six hundred and twenty-three, before going initially on loan to Southampton and then Birmingham City in February 1977, for whom he made sixty-six appearances.
He finished his career with his former playing colleague Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, where he won a European Cup winners’ medal as number two goalkeeper. He made a total of six hundred and eighty-nine league and cup appearances, not that far off his goal of seven hundred.
Division Two
Date – 23.09.1975
Venue – Roker Park
Attendance – 28,185
Sunderland 3 – 2 Carlisle United
Goal Scorers – Robson 12mins; Towers (pen) 35mins; Hughes 63mins.Barry 78mins; Laidlaw (pen) 88min.
Sunderland – Montgomery; Malone; Bolton; Moncur; Clarke; Kerr; Towers; Porterfield; Robson; Halom; Hughes. Sub – Holden.
Carlisle United – Burleigh; Spearitt; Gorman; Barry; Green; Carr; Martin; Prudham (Hindson 60mins); Clarke; O’Neill; Laidlaw.
