79 years ago today. Bobby Gurney, Raich Carter, Eddie Burbanks. Wembley. 93k plus. Johnny Cochran the manager. Interesting the manager was a jock. The starting eleven contained six English and five Jocks. All three goals scored by English players.
Nah mate, back then he played for wearmouth colliery and got picked up by Carlisle and played semi-pro, that's about all i know really. He's got dementia now so no good asking him. All i know is he played for a few seasons then retired from football after getting his ankle broke.
My all apologies for bringing up a touchy subject mate. It's nice to think your old man played at a high level of the game we all love though.
No apologies needed mate, it's not a dodgy subject at all for me mate and you weren't to know anyway. He never passed his skills to me like, i was only ever sunday pub team standard
We've always had a lot of Scottish players and managers until about 1970. Bill Murray and Ian McColl were Scottish managers of Sunderland even later than Cochran. The last top class Scottish players we had were probably Malone, Hughes, Kerr and Porterfield of '73 vintage. After about 1980, Scotland stopped producing the skills they always had produced - Dalglish being a notable exception. Johnny Cochran was well-liked in the town and remembered as being a very smart dresser.
That bit about us winning the FA cup and all that went with it just highlights how football has changed so drastically. The final was the showpiece of the season and Wembely was the high temple of football, the domestic season was over and meant little. That final was listened to on the wireless until the fifties and got a report in the Sunday and Monday morning papers then the season was over.It was the only trophy to play for and was guaranteed a huge homecoming to be paraded around the streets. Now it is a shadow of itself as it does not mean as much as a top four place for the big boys. As the OP said nowt but British players and blending them as a team was the only way to go. Some nondescript signing for pennies by today's prices could blossom into class players in the right surroundings. All about team building with the players all on the same wage and playing for each other was the key.
SA played 25 games for SAFC (is that all?). His last was today in 1981 against Liverpool at Anfield. Stan Cummins scoring the only goal to keep the club in Div1. Aston Villa won the league that year. So how good was SA at SAFC, and why did he play so few?
He was an 'okay' type of centre half, which is probably why he didn't play many times for us I was at that game, when the atmosphere was blinking brilliant Bob Paisley had apparently arranged for a crate of champers to be in our dressing room (well the players . . . . not ours) after the match . . . . what a canny lad
