Despite having been on the cards for much of our time in the First Division, relegation at the end of the 1960s was still a blow. It must also have been personally crushing for the manager, Alan Brown, to have led Sunderland to the Second Division for a second time. Yet, as was the case following our relegation in the 1950s, Brown was putting together a team based around some promising young players, and he was perhaps unfortunate to have again suffered relegation in the midst of a rebuilding process. The team had been struggling before he was re-appointed as manager, and dealing with this situation was always going to be a difficult task that was fraught with danger. However, after six seasons of seeing the Lads struggle against the country's best teams, the supporters expected life to be much easier in the Second Division. Surely, against weaker defences the Lads would score more goals, and having played against the likes of Greaves and Hurst our back line would have no trouble dealing with the tuppence ha'penny strikers found in the second flight. While no-one was pretending the season would be an easy ride, most fans expected to see a good season, with the Lads challenging for - and, with a bit of luck, clinching - promotion. Unfortunately, the campaign got off to a poor start as the weak away form of previous seasons continued to linger. The first game of the season saw us visit Ashton Gate to play Bristol City, but a battling performance ended in a 4 - 3 defeat for the Lads. Our next two away games also ended in defeat - 2- 0 at Charlton and 1 - 0 at Orient - setting the tone for the rest of the season. At home, however, we started reasonably well, a 3 - 3 draw with Watford being followed by wins against Charlton (3 - 0), Norwich (2 - 1), Sheffield Wednesday (3 - 1) and Bolton (4 - 1). While these were good, strong wins, the simple fact was that the poor away form cancelled them out. As the Lads had found out in the 1960s, gaining promotion is a tough task, for consistently good home and away form is required to finish at the top of the table. With performances drifting towards the end of the year, Brown moved to inject some new blood into the side. Having signed Dick Malone from Ayr United - for £30,000 - in mid-October, he splashed out a more substantial fee of £100,000, for Rotherham's centre forward Dave Watson, during December. Results did not immediately improve, however. Indeed, the New Year began disastrously, with Hull beating us 4 - 0 in the League and Orient beating us 3 - 0 at home in the third round of the FA Cup. Though the Lads compensated for this with a couple of good wins at the end of January, in February, they failed to win a single game. What's more, the defence was showing real signs of vulnerability. The month began with a 2 - 0 defeat at QPR and a 4 - 0 defeat at home to Cardiff. Having conceded fifteen goals in the first six games of the year, it seemed clear that our back line needed strengthening. However, Brown instead chose to sell Colin Todd, rated as one of the best half-backs in the game, to Brian Clough's Championship chasing Derby County for £175,000. It was not the response the fans were looking far, and morale began to sink as the Lads continued to under perform. March proved to be as fruitless as February, the Lads again failing to win a single game. What's more, by the end of the month we had managed to score just one goal in eight games. By Easter we looked more like relegation candidates than a team that had aspirations of return to the top flight. Fortunately, in the final run in we pulled our socks up. A great 5 - 2 win against Swindon brought our barren winless run to an end and the five games following this saw another three wins, against Orient, Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday, the latter two being away from home. The fans, though, had already had enough. Crowds had dwindled to well below the 15,000 level, the mediocre 13th place finish being more than many could stomach. It was our worst finish since the dog days of the late 1950's. Yet, as always with Brown, he had his sights fixed on the future. Once again he was determined to make his youth policy the key to Sunderland's success. By the end of the season the entire squad had cost less than £250,000, with the entirety of that sum having been spent on only four players: Porterfield, Harris, Malone and Watson. The rest of our registered playing staff had either come up through the ranks or been signed on free transfers. But, the fans needed to start seeing quick improvements across the board: they could not tolerate much more of this.
Tbh Syd Bendtner is not as bad as Flo, close mind, both tall lankly gits (I know about those sort), promise much deliver little, both think they are good but their performances show that is a self deleusion.
