A mag mate met him a few times as they were both into playing tennis, Durban told him that we were 2 players short of being a potentially top 6 side but club wouldn't,t give him the cash
I'm going to start the way everybody on here expects me to, because no twelve year-old can ever stand on the Fulwell End and watch the unbelievable things Shackleton could do with a ball, and not marvel at them for the rest of his life. And I can't either. So, for somebody my age, Shack will always be a consideration. But what Nathan says is something entirely different - and he's right. In 1970-71 season, Sunderland were pretty dismal, ending up 13th in Division 2, with an average home crowd of 15,764. The following season, 1971-72, they were better, ending up 5th. But the home crowds averaged 15,849 - about 100 more than when they were nowhere! Reports were coming out that the club - once the 'Bank of England club' - were £150,000 in debt. The alarm bells were ringing. At the start of the 1972-73 season, they had a bright run, but fell away around October. On 28th Oct., we drew 0-0 at home to Fulham in front of 11,618.and had dropped to 14th. Our average home crowd (Aug-Nov) was 13,410 ! There was just no way you could run a club the size of Sunderland on those gates forever. After the Fulham game, the Board could no longer bite the hand that fed them - manager, Alan Brown left "by mutual agreement" (whether he wanted to agree or not). Bob Stokoe took over at the beginning of December. By March 25th., we beat Carlisle in front of 40,930, and four days later drew with Bristol City before 33,255 - more than 74,000 inside four days. It wasn't just the team or the club. The whole city, and much of the county changed in that six months. Between May and August, 1973, shipyard production rose by 12.5%. The whole area was on the up and smiling again. I've never seen such a change anywhere inside six months.
Memory is a weird because looking back I enjoyed all the seasons but one of the best was under Dennis Smith just wrote to him to ask if we could meet the players and he wrote back saying me and my 2 mates could come to a match and stay with the first team from start to end of the match so we were in the dressing room with all the players during team talk and half time then went upstairs and had some food, some how can't see that happening these days.
Doug Wetherall afterwards, describing those months said, "You can lose sleep through joy", and he was right. Football, though there has been some extremely enjoyable moments/matches/days since, nothing, and I mean, nothing, has come close to the all pervading spine tingling feeling of sheer unbelievable fairy tale-ness of those few months. The excitement built up with each win and built and built, and never stopped. You saw rosettes and little red and white woollen men on everyone, cars and houses were painted red and white. And then, most unexpectedly for SAFC, WE F*CKING WON IT!
Yeh I've been going for over fifty years.seen some good and some poor. I enjoyed the seventys home and away great times. Through the rough eighths and nineties. My favorite time was when we had quinn and Philips knocking them in week after week.it didnt last very long but I met some great people at the sol in that time. I now get to not as many games as I would like but that will change when I retire In April next year.
Peter Ried era, especially the year where we destroyed Chelsea at home after losing the first game away to them at the start of the season.
