Christ I was at the Wimbledon game (and the Man City game for that matter) and we were awful all day. If Paul Stewart had only put that bloody header in................bugger. I got told a good story from a lad who knew someone that had gone on holiday that summer, only to bump into Robbie Earle by the pool. He had a canny bit crack with him and apparently Earle told him that all the Wimbledon players had agreed that they were happy for SAFC to stay up that day as they ahd seen the travelling support and were amazed, so they didnt really give it their all but we were so ****e, he said they couldnt help but beat us? I couldnt say that this story is gospel but I do remember the Dons were hardly busting a gut that day either but he was right. We were so ****e that day we deserved to get beat.
This. Although I would say that not selling to Tom Cowie was high up on his list of achievements. Cowie was an utter ****** IMHO and he was only offering £500,000 if I recall, whereas Murray wanted £2M, which meant he would have got his money back.
They basically strolled through the game mate, even the goal was like slow motion, and was barely celebrated. Our players were like ****ing rabbits in the headlights, bottled it, to a man, shat themselves. We went down, private mini bus but hired a driver so we could all get tanked up and celebrate staying up, we should have known we were going down when we arrived at The Valley at half 2. The match, of course, was played at ****ing Selhurst Park! The hired driver was lucky to escape with his teeth, one of the lads in particular had to be restrained from garotting the poor ****er with the seatbelt! We got to Selhurst around the 315 mark, to be greeted by a handful of staggered looking Dons fans, and thousand upon thousand of Sunderland. If we'd have stayed up, London wouldn't have known what hit it.
Cowie was talking the talk though, and at the time it was 'anyone but Murray'. A lucky escape, agreed, with hindsight.
The Valley; Selhurst Park. Were you guys at the 4-1 win over Charlton at Upton Park? Them poor Addicks took some ****e in those days before their club got back on track.
I've been to Upton Park twice, a 0-6 in the early 90's, and the 1-3 last season, which almost drove me to murder, of Rob Green. The finest oppo goalkeeping display i have ever witnessed, he was incredible.
I was at the 6-0. Midweek game, wasn't it? Sat in the main stand and took some stick, although it was pretty good natured as they were tonking us. Mind you, I think we got promoted that year, or did I dream it?
Ha, i thought it was a Sunday like, we'll agree it deffo wasn't a Saturday! We did go up thatbyear i think, i'm gonna hunt it down...
I think the midweek game was a 5-0 defeat (I was there too). The 6-0 defeat was a weekend game. As for Bob Murray, I would say that the positives outnumber the negatives, however, I still cringe at him calling our new ground The Stadium of Light, and his appointment of Howard Wilkinson nearly made me physically sick.
The sad thing about Murray was he loved SAFC as much as us. The late 80s when football was moving forward was leaving him behind, his pockets just weren't deep enough. His main fault was not finding an investor when he realised he couldn't carry the club. Plus when there was the talk of the top teams breaking away to form their own league. (Ended up as the Prem) Sunderland were touted as one of those invited and Murray said he wasn't interested. (Or did I dream that?) I do recall him having a right go at Man U though, over the Bellion affair though. Plus I still have respect for what he did for us and sacking McMenemy.
Bob Murray was at the SOL at one of the last games of season. He did the half time draw or something and he barely got a ripple of applause! He deserved much more respect than he got imo.
That pretty much sums it up. Murray had his flaws - and was never the wealthiest of men but you cannot question his love for the club and we should all be thankful every time we glance across the river or walk into the ground. His legacy will always be a top class stadium and academy, and selling the club to someone with vision and possibly even greater love for SAFC. Thanks Bob !
There were quite a few half hearted protests in the early 90s usually after a rubbish game a few would stand outside the Roker Park suite shouting "We want Murray Out" mainly kids, was there a few times myself. There was also a red card protest where at a pre-arranged time during the match everyone held up a red card that was distributed outside the ground. Can't remember exactly what this was about but it was against the board in general. I think in time people will form a more favourable opinion of him, most seem to think his heart was in the right place.
I remember a story (urban myth?) that he turned to Reid one close season and asked him how much he needed just to keep us up? That killed it for me. As a lot have said on here tho, on reflection he did have the club at heart and the stadium and moreso the academy are fine testimonials to the man. If he was presented to the crowd, I may not hurt my hands clapping but I wouldn't moan or boo. x
I did a university project on the SOL so did a lot of research on the project. I have to say Murray did a superb job in that respect as we got our stadium for a lot less than other people who were building stadia at the time, now looking at how much things like Wembley and the Olympic stadium cost we really did get superb value for money. I think its as simple as Murray just did not have the money to take us to the next level and when he did invest Reid made some bad signings: Flo etc.... I am 32 and most of my time supporting Sunderland has been under the Murray reign and I think he overall did a good job and cared about the club.
Yeah, didn't we build the SOL for £12 million, whilst Bolton paid £48 the same year for the Reebok, and Pride Park, a similar and notably smaller stadium was £24million. On a different note Vegas, have you got any of your music uploaded somewhere i can check it out??
An enjoyable read, cant realy fault anything printed so far. Murray did a lot for us, The stadium and accademy being mentioned many times. personally I like the wall of fame, have put many relatives and friends names on there, usually as birthday/xmas presents. one last thing, how many folks use a picture of the Murray gates as an illustration, its also used as the heading not 606 Sunderland. another of his works.
On the subject of Murray, it's also worth pointing out that I wrote him a couple of letters when he was in charge and he replied both times, which was a pleasant surprise.
