Today I'm going back exactly 40 years to this day in 1992 and Tottenham's visit to Sunderland's former home at Roker Park for a First Division fixture. The official attendance was 21,137 and this was my 7th visit of 14 in total.
The programme cover shows Sunderland's Gary Rowell being congratulated by Barry Venison and Ian Atkins following his match winning goal against West Ham United two weeks earlier. Rowell played for Sunderland between 1974-84 and he made 257 Football League appearances scoring 88 goals. Number 4 Ian Atkins went on to have a long and successful career in football management at a number of clubs including Northampton Town and Oxford United. Barry Venison (on the left in the photo) went on to have the most successful playing career of the three pictured, joining Liverpool from Sunderland before moving on to Sunderland's deadly rivals Newcastle United. Whilst at Liverpool, Venison won two First Division titles and an FA Cup winners medal. In his 30's Venison even received a surprise England call-up from Terry Venables and made two appearances for his country. The other feature of that programme cover is Sunderland's awful "candy striped" shirt, a major departure from their traditional broad red and white stripes. Innovation? No thank you!
The featured game was a joy as getting to see Tottenham was still something of a novelty for me. Spurs midfielder Gary Brooke grabbed a goal in the first half that eventually proved to be the winner. A 19-Year old Ally McCoist played up front for Sunderland that day but his time at Sunderland wasn't destined to be terribly successful. In all he managed just 9 goals in 65 appearances for the club before leaving for Rangers where his career would truly take off.
!982/83 season proved to be a relatively good one for manager Keith Burkinshaw's Tottenham and they ended up finishing 4th in the First Division thereby qualifying for the following season's UEFA Cup which they were destined to win. Champions that season were Liverpool who finished 11 points clear of second placed Watford. Sunderland, managed by Alan Durban, finished in 16th place (out of 22), just three points clear of Manchester City in the relegation zone. Also relegated that season were Swansea City and Brighton & Hove Albion.
CRB Match No. 191
Comments
Post a Comment