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The journey up the M6 was as boring as ever and when we got into Manchester the skies were gloomy and we didn’t have much time to spare as we found the bus-stop over to Old Trafford. This was in the time of the Stretford End’s worst notoriety and the News of the World would go into paroxysms of outrage over their bad behaviour. Unlike the prawn sandwich crowd of modern times the Stretford Enders back then were a rough lot and most of them were from the Manchester area. They’d invaded the pitch after the Dennis Law goal that sent them down and hadn’t been in very good humour since. They maintained a regular chorus of, “In their Sunderland slums (x 2 ) they look in the dustbins for something to eat. They find a dead rat and they think it’s a treat, in their Sunderland slums” and other welcoming ditties. We were in the stand adjoining theirs but fortunately Keith’s cry of encouragement didn’t arouse any immediate assaults on our persons, though I did keep looking over my shoulder. In fact we were all packed in so tightly together it would have been difficult to throw a punch.
Docherty had brought a number of Scots into his side including Big Jim Holton, who’d later play briefly for us too. (“Six foot two, eyes of blue, big Jim Holton’s after you! La- la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la!”) The team also included Sammy McIlroy, Lou Macari, Steve Coppell, Martin Buchan and Alex Stepney. Stuart Pearson opened the scoring for United after ten minutes or so but then Sunderland had them well and truly rattled and hit back quickly with two goals from Billy Hughes as well as creating several more good chances.
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