Page 19 - 370167 LP253351 A Love Supreme Magazine - A5 48pp (Issue 260) v2

LOCAL LADS
GARY ROWELL
BY FRANCIS TODD MALONE
Gary Rowell’s goals would have me inhaling his signature in my autograph book with
the gusto of a glue sniffer, would get me swaggering round school, swinging my Sunderland bag proudly. As an adult, a framed picture of his penalty against the Mags in 1979 adorns a wall of my house. Others have had their moments, but it’d be sacrilege to pick anyone else as my favourite.
Time and again, Seaham’s finest was our spark and saviour.1974-84 was not a golden era, was never going to bring many international caps for our players. So, the goal every three games Rowell managed in that time is not bad going, particularly as he knackered his knee halfway through that spell. Many of us had hearts in mouths in every game he played after that sickening injury at Leyton Orient.
It was Rowell who led the charge as we battled for the right to compete regularly with the best again and he was front and centre as we fought to stay there. His touch, work ethic and temperament were great. And then there was his movement. He had a lovely knack of appearing from nowhere to tuck the ball home effortlessly from close range. He couldn’t have been more of a fox in the box
if he shoved a broom up his arse and shouted ‘boom boom.’
And he was one of our own. It’s lovely when someone like Phillips, Quinn or Defoe comes in and ‘gets us’ but when a local lad scores and can see his mates and family in the crowd celebrating just like he is, it punches that bit harder.
The goal he scored at Liverpool on the final day
of the 1980-81 season, which ensured we stayed up, is a mighty scrapbook picture. The sea of faces on the Kop, stunned by his beautifully struck low shot into the corner, is one of my favourite post-1973 black and white images. And yet the goal of his I bizarrely remember above all others is the late penalty against Arsenal in 1984, when he swatted off the pressure and found the corner in front of the Fulwell to earn another point in another relegation battle. Thanks to him, we won most of them and it’s no coincidence that, after he’d gone, the very next one ended in spectacular failure.
When he left for Norwich I wasn’t a kid anymore but that didn’t make it any easier to take. It wasn’t a great move for him either as injury struck again, Although he was a winner at the 1985 League Cup
final, he wasn’t really and nor were we. He didn’t play, while we were sick as pigs at the defeat. At least he’s a part of Norwich’s history, with their centenary jersey carrying the names of all their players.
He didn’t do too badly at Boro but towards the end
of his career, stints at Brighton, Carlisle, Burnley and Dundee (on loan) were uninspiring, the total opposite of what he was for us. We all live in a Gary Rowell World, forever...
ALOVESUPREME ISSUE260 19