On this day in 1999, Michael Gray became the first Sunderland player to represent England at Wembley for over two decades. The defender came off the bench in the Three Lions’ goalless draw with Sweden, becoming the first Black Cat to feature at the national stadium for England since Tony Towers in 1976. Having made his national team debut two months earlier, Gray replaced Graham Le Saux at half-time during the Euro 2000 qualifier, and four days later the defender would make his third and final appearance for the Three Lions, as he started in a 1-1 draw with Bulgaria. Fellow Black Cat Stefan Schwarz also played at Wembley on this day in ’99, lining up against Gray for Sweden. This, I believe, is where it went wrong for Mickey, because I think that playing for England 'went to his head' and enlarged it somewhat It's still a good memory, though, 'cos he still did well
If I recall the game correctly, Mr Scholes did some Paul Scholes tackling and got himself sent off. This killed the game as an event. I was canny lashed up in a pub in Muswell Hill at the time
