Billy Bingham. Interesting opening sentence. joined Sunderland in October 1950 for £8,000.[1] In addition to playing professional football at Roker Park, Bingham continued his shipbuilding apprenticeship on the Sunderland shipyards.[1] His speed and ball-control made him a popular player with the "Black Cats", and he gradually worked his way into Bill Murray's first team plans in 1950–51.[1] He established himself as the first choice outside-right in 1951–52, however he lost his place to Billy Wright in 1952–53.[1] He made just 19 appearances in 1953–54, as Wright continued to hold on to his first team place.[1] Bingham regained his place in 1954–55, scoring ten goals in 42 games, as Sunderland finished fourth in the First Division, four points behind champions Chelsea.[1] They also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where they lost to Manchester City atVilla Park.[1] They slipped to ninth in1955–56, and again exited the FA Cup at the semi-finals, this time losing 3–0 to Birmingham City.[1] The 1956–57campaign started poorly, and Bingham was dropped in October; he put in a transfer request, which was turned down.[1] New boss Alan Brown signed outside-right Amby Fogarty from Glentoran, and led the club to relegation in 1957–58.[1] Out of the first team, Bingham fell out with Brown, and left the club in the summer on a £8,000 transfer to top-flight Luton Town.[1] In total he made 227 appearances and scored 47 goals during his time in the North East.[1]
Bingham was always a crowd favourite - a fiery runner and a great exponent of the diagonal cross. His first goal for Sunderland was a Shack 'classic' It was at Highbury. Billy went up with the Arsenal keeper for a cross ball. Both fell to the ground, and the ball fell to 'Shack'. It was right on the goal line, and all Len had to do was tap it in. But he didn't. Shackleton kept it under the sole of his foot, rolling it backwards and forwards to avoid tackles and shouting for Bingham to get up. Bingham did and tapped it in the net! Overall, Shack did a lot for Bingham's career. He was replaced by Tommy Wright (not Billy) who we signed from Partick Thistle. Tommy was a good enough player to get three caps for Scotland, at a time when Hibernian's 'famous five' forward line had a stranglehold on those positions. At a time when we had a good RW reserve (Bingham) we needed a new CF, so we swapped Wright to East Fife for Charlie 'Cannonball' Fleming. Bingham's fall-out with Alan Brown wasn't exceptional - there were only two first-teamers left inside a year of Brown's arrival! Colin Grainger was the last to go in 1960, apart from Stan Anderson, who stuck with his home town team for a while. But even Anderson left eventually - to NUFC. Bingham went to Luton, and played in the 1959 Cup Final for them. He then moved on to Everton where he is still regarded as a club legend. At one time, Bingham held the record for N. Ireland caps. I think Danny Blanchflower of 'Spurs eventually overtook him.
twice breaking his leg at the start of his Sunderland career, Kerr overcame the setbacks to lead the club to FA Cup glory in 1973 by beating strong favourites Leeds United 1-0, a feat which is seen as one of the greatest shocks in English football.[2] The game itself was voted as one of the top ten greatest moments at the old Wembley Stadium.[3] Aside from the FA Cup, Kerr also lead Sunderland to promotion from Division Two in 1976. Between the 1970–71 and 1978–79 seasons, Kerr missed just 23 games, and never made less than 40 appearances in five consecutive seasons between 1971–72 and 1975–76.
We beat a few other bigger clubs for his signature after he played a blinder for the League of Ireland (NI B Team) and tormented the life of the England B Team.
Just read about this again. What a sickner. On 30 August 2002, Sunderlandannounced the double signing of Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart, having chased Zlatan Ibrahimovic. please log in to view this image As Peter Reid looked to add more fire power to his Sunderland side, he turned to Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart, who arrived from Rangers and Ipswich respectively in 2002. One player they did not sign was a 20-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic. At 29-year-old, Flo had scored goals at every club he had been at, and seemed to be a sound and more safe investment from Sunderland. However, the number nine only managed four goals in his only season on Wearside, heading to Italy a year later. please log in to view this image Also 29 at the time, Stewart had a much better career at Sunderland, spending three years at the Stadium of Light and scoring 31 goals, with 17 of them coming in his final season before moving to Bristol City in 2005. please log in to view this image " >
On this day. FTM http://www.thestatcat.co.uk/Match.aspx?MatchID=5259&LU=S&LUID=13 @The Relic @Nostalgic
Todays random player is Neil Martin. 46 goals in 99 games during the 60s. Never heard of him. Anyone? http://www.thestatcat.co.uk/Player.aspx?PlayerID=603
Another Scottish international who was a lanky 6ft plus lad who was played at centre forward following on from Cloughie more or less. More often than not was on his own as we could not afford a decent forward to play with him. He was particularly good in the air and he and left winger George Mulhall had a good understanding.
Came from Arsenal i believe, he scored some memorable goals including a blinder in one game, just seen the post, but I was at that game and its a one that sticks in the memory Going back to old big head, the two touches two goals myth needs contradicting, he really put himself about in games often shaking up his opposite number and he could spread the ball around, he was not just a finisher but a real menace in the box. The bulk of his goals were scored for Boro and apart from Peacock the also had two very good wide men in Billy Day and Eddie ? Halidday who provided plenty oportunitie for the two strikers. I am speaking from memory but three of these four played for England even though the team was playing in the old second division.
Martin was the best header of a ball ever, he scored one against the mags at their place, direct from a goal kick from our keeper.
