One of the finest individual performances ever seen from a Sunderland player. F A Cup,Old Trafford,over 61,000 in the ground....including many thousands of us...against the finest players of the day......Law,Charlton,Best,Crerand,Stiles were all on the pitch...we played in light blue shirts and black shorts. Arise Mr Johnny Crossan....my favourite ever player....never will be forgotten.
I was 11 mate...still remember it though. The excitement until it was wrenched away in the last 5 minutes! Mind you,repeated again 4 days later!
I've mentioned this on here before, but I was on holiday in Majorca a good few years ago and I entered the hotel lift with another bloke who, noticing my Sunderland top said 'I used to play for Sunderland' I said that I was sorry, 'cos I didn't recognise him, and asked him his name. He said (obviously) 'Johnny Crossan' I can't remember seeing him play, but I apparently did, and I met him all those years later
Is that the time we were leading 3-1 and Monty got smacked in the face and had blurred vision then let in 2 more for United to steal the draw.
Fantastic that marra, my son got us when he was 10/11. Thinking of this, I started following the lads in 74 (when I was 11). Top bloke by all accounts
Liked Johnny Crossan a lot, didn’t we get him from Standard Leige, inside forward alongside George Herd and that giant Nick Sharkey, looking at today’s players it’s quite laughable really.
Yep,Standard Liege after he'd been banned from playing in UK. George Herd and Nicky Sharkey didn't come much above 6 foot put together!
Banned from playing because when we tried to sign him from Derry City, he refused the deal and instead signed for Coleraine. Bristol City subsequently paid £7k for him to Coleraine meaning that Derry missed out on the £10k we were offering. He was technically an amateur at Derry but they'd been paying him. Aggrieved at missing out on the transfer fee, the dropped themselves in it with the football authorities for paying an amateur, which led to his ban. But you probably know this.
A bit hazy on it now mate,but,my recollection is that you're right and it was Derry who,as an act of spite, admitted to wrongdoing,which caused his ban. I think I'm right in saying he was forever grateful to us for taking on the authorities and getting his ban overturned. It was worth it mind....he was a good player.
Funnily enough, I was reading something about him a little while back. I was looking up Derry City because I had a trip to Derry/Londonderry back in the autumn.
Was at that one too. What a night! I don't recall such chaos outside Roker as there was before the match.It seemed like the whole world was there. I was knee-high to a grasshopper,desperately clinging to my Dad's hand as we battled our way to the turnstile entrance. God knows how many were in there. Another pulsating match....a last gasp equaliser in extra time for Bobby Charlton,I think,left me broken hearted again! My dad wouldn't let me go to the second replay.....just as well!
I could not get near the ground that night , police reconed over 100,000, turned up, I went down my usual time and the crush started outside the Cambridge and I got halfway down Sandringham Road , thats when the gates in the clockstand went in ,one of my uncles lost his shoes in the turmoil .
The forward line at that time was tiny by todays standards. Brian Usher played on the right,he was skinny and frail,Herd,Sharkey,Crossan and Mulhall had no height between them. It wasn't until we signed Neil Martin from Hibs that we had what you might call a target man up front. That said,Sharkey had a terrific leap on him....used to surprise everyone.
I was in the army based in Germany at the time and I kept up to date with both games on the wireless. Amazingly the unfortunate crowd problems at the replay were headlines in the local German newspaper. I kept that cutting for many years and I'm sure it will be somewhere amongst a load of other trivia I collected over the years.
