Appointed manager 20 years ago today. 353 games. Won 159 of them, with 95 draws and 99 defeats. Built some great teams, with some great players..it should have been the start of something glorious...
Should've been the start of something great - at Christmas we sat 2nd in the league, 4 points behind Man Utd and we didn;t sign anyone - had we made the right signings we may have been looking at a title winning side - even the Arsenal fans thought that! But the manager and chairman thought better of it! Major pity that as it could've been the greatest time in my lifetime! Sadly, the greatest in my lifetime is losing cup finals!!
What season was that? The only time I remember you being up there with us, was the season after our treble, I think Leeds were the best team in the league prior to the new year when we got our arses into gear. Fergie had a habit of rocking the sides around him back then by sniffing around their best players, I bet if you were that close he'd have been all over Kevin Phillips, there was no transfer window, he had to adjust his tactics when they changed the laws
Alright maybe it wasn't as close as I thought (I used to drink back then at the matches - home and away back in those days!) we were 11 points behind not 4!! The season before we were running you a lot closer and fell away! Still - 2nd would still be worth having as a memory!
It's like having the wife on here with all you lot telling me I was wrong!! I was going from memory (sketchy drink related memory) but, having dug up the actual facts, I found out that it wasn;t as close as I "remembered"
Couldn't we have gone top when we were beating Man U at home, but then Man U got a mysterious free kick in injury time when there was no player within three yards of the player who fell over which they equalised from...Peter Reid made a joke about the player tripping over a sprinkler..
I don't think it was that one mate, as I was at that game at SoL. I watched the one where we played them as a 1st Vs 2nd clash in a bar in Tenerife with a bunch of scousers. I remember Quinn getting fouled for a blatant pen, and (I think) Micky Gray got a red card for calling the ref a cheat when he allowed some Andy Cole basketball to lead to a goal. After that I think Alex Rae and Andy Cole also got sent off
About 8 games in, we were just 8 minutes from going top of the PL until West Ham equalised. That was as close as we got. Unless my memory's heading in the same direction as RAW
Wrong Blunham - we were top of the PL after out first game against Spurs a few season ago - drew 1-1 or 0-0 but we were the early kick off so, due to alphabetical order - we went top for a couple of hours
Make sure my dinner's ready when I get in Marcus, any onions and it'll go straight in the bin and you'll have to do me something else X
It was close Marcus you were right. Albeit playing a game more. Mid December we had it to 3 points in third place. We'd scored more goals than Leeds and conceded less than Man. U. We went into January in fourth but we didn't invest and ended up missing out on Europe. please log in to view this image Funky Stat Man!
Well I'm not backing down Funky. We were technically top until those bloody hammers equalised with 8 minutes to go!
I don't think you're wrong marra, but when you weigh up how far into the season it was The league I posted is the healthiest position we've ever been in in my lifetime. If I had access to the stats(I need the records book so I can finish Wiki's Sunderland history and you know I would) I dare bet it's the most healthiest position we've been in Post War. I'm sure some of the Older lads(yourself included) will have heard tales from their father or from their early memories could verify it.
