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I can remember nothing about local boy Mitchinson but I was well acquainted with all the others - we had the same goalie and defenders for years on end in those days so it wasn't difficult. The seventeen year-old John O'Hare, who came on for Mitchinson at the beginning of the second-half got a goal and, according to a correspondent on the RTG Messageboard, he coolly lobbed Costa Pereira in goal. John never got too much of a look-in during his subsequent years at Sunderland but our loss was Brian Clough's gain when he took him to Derby where he later won the First Division title in 1972, Leeds briefly, and European Cup glory with Nottingham Forest in 1979.
Nicky Sharkey was interviewed by safc.com in their 'Where Are They Now?' section decades later and said that he was most fond of beating Benfica and as he got a hat-trick I'm not surprised. As I said, the final score was 5-3 and George Herd got our other goal with Simoes also scoring for Benfica. We were leading 4-1 with about fifteen minutes to go and then Benfica pulled a couple back. I can't imagine that they were really busting a gut. Another fan who was at the game mentioned on the RTG Messageboard that Eusebio also hit the bar and it rattled like hell for a while afterwards. He certainly had a very powerful shot and in that famous World Cup match from 1966 when Portugal eventually triumphed over North Korea 5-3 at Goodison Park after being three down early in the game he nearly burst the net with one of the four goals he got that day. I remember he looked very angry and whacked that ball with all of his might.
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