Page 76 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

Man United, which we lost narrowly 3-2, and I’ll talk more about that in the next chapter. I was at Roker Park on 18th January to see the return fixture. We dominated the game but it still ended 0-0. As I left the Roker End some policemen were shepherding a large group of Sunderland lads who’d been chanting, “Where’s the famous soccer hooligans?” through a gate in the Clock Stand and one of the cops was uttering dire physical threats about what was going to happen when they got them inside. We finished fourth that season so we were gradually heading in the right direction.
We finally made it back to the top flight the following season and the first match I remember was on 27th September when we hammered Notts County 4-0 with two goals from Pop Robson and one each from Vic Halom and Bobby Kerr. I walked back across the bridge with Arth in the pouring rain feeling all was right with the world. I endured a frustrating 1- 1 draw with close rivals Bristol City on 23rd March but four days later I was in the Paddock to see us beat Southampton 3- 0 and Roy Greenwood played a blinder and scored twice. The match that clinched promotion was on 19th April 1976. I was there in a packed Roker End as we beat rivals Bolton 2-1. Our future player and manager Sam Allardyce got a consolation goal for them after our two first-half goals from Towers and Robson. There was a crowd of almost fifty-two thousand and the atmosphere was fantastic. The weather was scorching too and I went home with a red streak across the top of my face. At home I had to resume trying to retrieve my terrapins which had climbed out of their tank and disappeared
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