Sunderland went into this game in fourth position in the Second Division on fifty-two points. The teams above us had played all their games and could do no more but wait on us playing our final game at Roker Park against the West Ham.
With two points for a win (three points would be introduced in 1981/82) Leicester City were champions and could not be caught. Birmingham were second on fifty-three points, the same points as Chelsea in third position on goal difference. Whatever the result of this final
game, Birmingham were promoted. So it was Chelsea who were sweating on the result of this game.
The irony of being in this situation with Chelsea was not lost on some of our older supporters. In 1962/63 it had been ourselves who had to wait and hope that Chelsea would not win their last game against Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge (played after every other team had finished their league programme in the division). Chelsea won seven – nil, they went up and we stayed down with the same points but an inferior goal average to the Blues.
To rub salt in this particular wound, had we beaten Chelsea in our final game of the season at Roker Park we would have gone up instead of them. 62,000 fans turned up anticipating promotion in fine style, but we fluffed our lines and Chelsea won a horrible game by an ugly goal. Waiting for the result of their game against Portsmouth only prolonged the agony for Sunderland fans in 1963!
West Ham manager John Lyall had promised Chelsea that his team, despite their herculean efforts at Wembley just two days earlier, would be right at it at Roker Park when he told the press: “You can promise Chelsea we will be having a real go. We’ll give nothing less than 100%.”
Second Division West Ham had overcome First Division Arsenal in the final by a goal to nil and had, by all accounts, celebrated long and hard before travelling to the North East. The good news for them was the only player missing from their squad was Paul Allen, a young player of tremendous potential, who had left the squad to link up with the England Youth team in East Germany.
West Ham were out of the promotion race but lying in sixth position and had been there or thereabouts for most of the season. They had already beaten us in the league at the Boleyn earlier in the season and beaten us there in a League Cup replay after forcing a draw at Roker Park.
I was nervous about the opposition going into this game. They were a very good footballing side. I had little doubt they could and would cause us some difficulties if we were not right at it for the ninety minutes. With Trevor Brooking and Alan Devonshire in their midfield they had creativity. In Phil Parkes they had a keeper who would be recognised with international caps and a really tough defence to overcome, with Alvin Martin drawing a lot of attention. Billy Bonds and Frank Lampard Senior were experienced and wily too. Up front David Cross and Stuart Pearson were a right handful. Cross was on eighteen goals for the season, two of them scored against Sunderland. He was a forward who always gave us problems no matter who he was playing for!
Sunderland had centre-half Jeff Clarke out injured for this game. He had been one of our most consistent players throughout the season and would be a big loss. Versatile Gordon Chisholm would deputise.
Joe Bolton too was still a long-term absence. Just before the transfer window closed, manager Ken Knighton had gone to Fourth Division Wigan and paid a very good sum of £135,000 for the services of Joe Hinnigan. It had seemed a high fee for a relatively unknown Fourth Division player at the time, but had proved an inspired buy as he played his way into the team and our favour with some rollicking performances.
Alan Brown, on nine goals for the season and with some dynamic performances behind him, had failed a fitness test earlier in the day and John Hawley came in for his ninth game of the campaign, looking to add to his one goal for the season. Hawley had been a £200,000 buy from Leeds United, but had not really set the grass alight at this point in his Sunderland career.
A player who had got his career off the ground in fine style following his transfer was Stan Cummins. Jack Charlton at Middlesbrough had prophesied that Stan would be a million-pound player. As it was, we paid £300,000 for him from Boro and what a signing he had proved to be, lighting up Roker Park with dazzling wing play and ball skills. His ability to create goals for his team-mates was matched by his eleven goals so far this season.
Pop Robson was Sunderland’s top scorer, in fine form on twenty-two goals in all competitions, and would be keen to add to his tally against his former team.
When the £100,000 paid to Sheffield Wednesday for Chris Turner and Claudio Marangoni from San Lorenzo at £380,000 at the start of the season was factored in, it would take Sunderland’s spending to over a million on transfers for the first time ever.
Whilst Turner had proved to be a young goalkeeper of outstanding talent, Marangoni had made less of an impact (though there was possibly an argument to be had, with the benefit of hindsight, that we had been playing him in the wrong position)!
Sunderland had delivered a very good season and an exceptional second half to the campaign. In twenty-three games from December 8th through to the season’s finale, we lost only twice, winning twelve of those games.
By five-thirty that night the ground was packed and though the official attendance was given as 47,129, I witnessed a number of fans myself who “bunked in” given the massive queues that snaked around Roker Park.
The Sunderland team gave West Ham a guard of honour onto the pitch and the massive crowd joined in with warm applause to pay respect to them for their fantastic cup final win.
My anxiety about playing the Hammers in this do-or-die game was triggered in the first phase of the contest. West Ham, with Brooking and Devonshire at the heart of everything, stroked the ball around confidently and with a fair degree of effectiveness. In 1975/76 we had gone up as champions under Bob Stokoe, boasting an unbeaten home record in the league, and we had seemed untouchable at Roker Park in that season. To a degree I had felt many similarities in this season, although we had drawn five games at home coming into this one, as opposed to two in 1975/76. The way the game started had many of us in the stands thinking we were going to lose our unbeaten home record!
Chris Turner made a very good save from David Cross, palming away a back-header.
The young keeper then showed his nerves and allowed a weak shot from Cross to slip under his body, remarkably bobbling just past the post. Ray Stewart also took a throw that was flicked – headed on by Pearson that had Turner scrambling to fingertip this away. Alarmingly, the ball looked to be rolling into the net, but Steve Whitworth got there just in time to clear it off the line. All we had to show for the first twenty minutes was a snap-shot by Shaun Elliott that Parkes saved relatively easily.
Elliott’s shot did jolt the crowd out of its anxiety state and as we bayed for more, Pop Robson duly obliged with a shot that brought a great save out of Parkes.
David Cross was then well set up by Devonshire, but missed when it seemed easier to score.
Shortly after this, step up the mercurial Kevin Arnott. Pop Robson played a major role in the opener. First of all Pop tested Parkes with a good shot that he deflected away from his goal. Ever alert and defying his thirty-four years, Robson pounced on the rebound and drove his second shot goalward. Parkes managed to deflect this effort too, but right into the shooting alley of Kevin Arnott, who was moving forward at pace, adjusted smoothly and side-footed the ball past Parkes. It was Arnott’s ninth of the season and triggered wild celebration as a huge collective release of tension hit the overwhelming majority in Roker Park.
Half-time arrived with no further scoring as the Lads were cheered to the very rafters for their sweet tea and orange segment journey into the dressing room.
West Ham were first to show after the break with a trademark blunderbuss from full-back Ray Stewart that flew just past Turner’s left-hand post.
It did seem as if the Stewart attempt kick-started the whole Sunderland team as first of all Joe Hinnigan fizzed a low cross along that corridor of uncertainty that had the Fulwell and Roker Ends surging as Arnott and Cummins just failed to connect with it.
Hinnigan was involved again a minute later, booked for hauling back substitute Pat Holland (who had come on for Stuart Pearson). He followed this up by miskicking in front of goal when gloriously set up by the busy Mick Buckley, who had pulled a great pass back from the byline having been set away by a slide-rule Arnott ball.
Stan Cummins then worked a bit of magic before smashing a goal-bound shot that Parkes did well to save.
Shortly after this West Ham went down to ten men as Ray Stewart left the field with a hamstring injury on sixty-eight minutes.
The little maestro was at it again a couple of minutes later in the most dynamic fashion. There was little indication of what was to come as Cummins picked the ball up in midfield. He shimmied past one defender, side-stepped another and then just about sat Alvin Martin on his backside as the big stopper had no idea which way Stan was going to go (at pace) before smashing a low shot past Parkes that billowed the net. What a goal this was. The din that greeted it shook the old stadium as well as the avenues around Roker Park.
Sunderland were not done, smelling blood they went for the jugular as West Ham appeared to accept the inevitable as their cup-winning exertions and celebrations caught up with them.
Shaun Elliott, a non-stop dynamo on the night, flashed a powerful shot just past Parkes’ post and then, a couple of minutes later, cracked another pile-driver from the edge of the box that looked a goal all day long, only for Parkes to pull off a cracking save.
The game finished with utter delirium on the terraces. Our heart-breaking end to the previous season, where despite winning our last game at Wrexham we failed to go up by a point having gone into that last game in a promotion (third) position, was well and truly laid to rest as the scenes of celebration unfolded on another magical Roker Park night under the floodlights.
The next day the team and backroom staff flew to Miami for a fortnight’s break, with promotion and the prestigious Daily Express 5 – a – side trophy also in the trophy room and a first-ever penalty play-off victory in a cup competition, that just happened to be over Newcastle, topping off a fine season in style.
Assistant manager Frank Clark told the press: “This is the first step on the ladder, we have got to build on this.”
Chairman Keith Collings said: “I am more pleased on this occasion because of the pressures on our new manager Ken Knighton. We have the players to succeed, they are not a bunch of cloggers.”
Unfortunately what seemed like a warm, respectful relationship between new manager and chairman was soon to be broken as Collings stepped down and Tom Cowie took the helm.
Ken Knighton would reflect on the sharp difference in his relationship with his chairman when he said: “I remember when the press conference was called to introduce the new chairman Tom Cowie. At this he said to the press gathered that contrary to speculation Ken Knighton would still be the manager next season. The thing was there had not been any speculation! It’s fair to say we had a stormy relationship and I left the club the following April.”
Nonetheless, leaving Roker Park that evening and winding my way home, my head was full of the delights of the top tier that awaited, with Old Trafford, Anfield et al in my sights. With a team that seemed oven-ready for the elite division, I could hardly wait to get on the road with the red and white army!
Division Two
Date – 12.05.1980
Venue – Roker Park
Attendance – 47,129Sunderland 2 – 0 West Ham
Goal scorers – Arnott 39 minutes; Cummins 71 minutes.
Sunderland – Turner; Whitworth; Hinnigan; Chisholm; Hindmarch; Elliott; Buckley; Arnott; Cummins; Hawley; Robson. Sub – Dunn.
West Ham – Parkes; Stewart; Brush; Bonds; Martin; Devonshire; Neighbour; Pearson (Holland 46 mins); Cross; Brooking; Pike.
