First big game I remember was the inauguration of our floodlights when Juventus was the opposition , John Charles playing alongside Enrico Sivori the only names I can remember off hand, too lazy to look it up , but I had been going sporadically from about 1950 with my old man when he was on shore leave, the ground was only 5 mins walk around the corner. Saw all the big names Shack being the highlight and Bobby Mitcheal from up the road leading the opposition, that testimonial was the end of an era. Then along came Brown.
Just looked that one up. 2nd Dec 1957. Sivori was world record signing at 120,000 at that time. Must have been an amazing game to be at! https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/23165308.stars-juve-played-sunderland-65-years-ago/?ref=yahoo https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...-studded-italians-under-the-roker-floodlights
Thanks mate, it was, the atmosphere as you can imagine was electric, no pun intended , and I was hooked , think Pele arrived that year in Europe as well , so my hero's from then on were mostly South American until Brian Clough arrived to complete the best Sunderland line up I can remember sadly cut short almost before it got started. .
I would have loved to have seen some of the players from that era. Some of the old boys round where I lived would talk about Shackleton and the things he could do with a ball. Stabbing it away from himself, putting so much backspin on it that it came back to him, but beckoning to it so it looked he could talk to it was one of the stories they used to tell.
I attended my first game in 1954, against Sheffield Wednesday. I probably saw the game you refer to, it may have been the game when The Babes scored a disputed goal and the Sunderland players were incensed, particularly Shack. Getting the ball from the restart Shack beat man after man and laid the ball to Ted Purdom for a one and one with the keeper. Purdom completely missed the ball but still had time to try again and slot the ball into the back of the net. Sadly, Manchester United beat us 1-2 that day. I was 11 years old in October 1956 and certainly the events I describe are still fresh in my memory.
That's brilliant! Thank you so much! Someone has marked the scorers on the team sheet at the centre of the programme and it was 2-1 to them so it must be the same game! It's great to hear about what actually happened in the game!
Backheeling penalties , scoring goals that never were, running down the field with the ball on his head ,sitting on the ball and reading an imaginary news paper (I actually saw him do this} , and many stories of tricks I cant remember off hand. A proper one off was our Len, and. to think we bought him from a little club up the road .
The Gallows Thief also mentions the corrupt betting in cricket in those days. Human nature never changes, does it.
My dad tells a bit of a story, but it is confused and each telling is different. Something to do with Stanley Matthews at Sunderland theatre and refusing to go anywhere near Shack because he knew Shack would make him look daft. Also something about shack walking up and down some stairs juggling the ball on his head when Matthews was present, just for a laugh. Anybody make sense of whether that is real?
That’s the one.. I’m now reading Plague Pits And Bones. No mention of cricket yet but gives a good feel of the period.
By the way, my Dad would have been at the game. His favourite era and as much as he loved the lads he goes on about the babes. Was Duncan Edwards in that team? Dad says he was the best. My Dad always goes on about Trevor Ford as the best he has seen at Sunderland. After the mags game I had a cuppa and he had watched it on tv, he doesnt bother watching much at all anymore, first thing he said was Trevor Ford would have kicked them into conceding goals.
Just been having a search for footage of Shackleton on YouTube and came across this- Appears to be us playing a friendly against Dynamo Moscow. It must have been during their tour of Britain in the mid 50s. I didn't realise we had played them then. I do know that in one of their first games on that tour (against Chelsea), they walked on to the pitch and handed all of the Chelsea players a bouquet of flowers. I've seen an interview with centre forward, Tommy Lawton, saying how shocked they all were. Another interesting thing about the video is, we're wearing solid red shirts. I believe in the 50s we wore solid red, but very shiny, shirts in floodlit games. Is that right?
My dad is convinced Duncan Edwards would have been an absolute superstar. I love talking to him about the players he has seen, some absolute legends. Yet of all of them he still holds a certain C Hurley as the absolute best
there was a rare 1958 Man U programme sold at auction and fetched £7,500, i am going through mine at the minute putting them in binders got some from 1951-52 season up to date, cannot get a Notts county cup one though. collecting cup finals as well. stacks of spares from the 60's. bidding £14 for the Newcastle cup game programme !
