Page 41 - 370167 LP253351 A Love Supreme Magazine - A5 48pp (Issue 260) v2

seeing a girl who lived close to him, he’d give me a lift. And it was always on these car trips that I’d see a different man, giving me the kind of advice a 16 year old needs at that time in their life. He was a good man.
Another good man was Tony Norman. In all the dressing rooms I was ever part of as a player, I’m not sure I ever came across a nicer man than Tony. Every training session was a joy and along with Alec Chamberlain, Muzzy and Monty, we just had the best laugh you could have whilst working like dogs together.
I’ve always enjoyed the competition you have between a group of keepers and promote it as much as I can as a coach. Everyone pushing on the other to work better and harder with their effort, it’s a healthy environment. But the ultimate is when you have a real positivity between the group. We had that then, just a real good vibe amongst us and Tony Norman and Alec Chamberlain were a big part of it. If you were having a bad day, they’d always be the first to pick you up with words of encouragement.
There was one occasion I was playing for the youth team against Hull City, one of Tony’s former clubs, and I came
to take a cross to the back stick, stumbled and carried the ball over the line. It was an horrendous mistake. Mortified, I looked back behind the goal to see Tony’s face with a big grin on his face. Shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “It doesn’t matter,” he set me off and I couldn’t help but to start laughing too.
He really was an underrated keeper, so good in 1v1 situations by leaning to one side to trick the striker to place
it the opposite side, and then he’d flick out his arm in the opposite direction to save it. “Page 28, Chapter 2” as he’d say, reading them like a book. Tony was another who was brilliant with his feet, delighted when there were odd numbers in five-a-sides and enough keepers so he could play up front.
During the Peter Reid era, the next two keepers brought
to the club were Shay Given and Tony Coton, and when it came to lessons, it was these two who gave me the biggest one. Whilst being two very different people and goalkeepers, the biggest thing that stuck out for me was their mentality. Absolute, cast-iron winners and both set the precedent for the future of Sunderland under the gaffer. It was a clear sea change and the best lesson in showing me how far off I was from being on their level.
It’s a real shame TC suffered that horrific injury at Southampton because Premier Passions would have been a different spectacle and we’d have definitely stayed up if he had been fit. I remember in those first few training sessions at being shocked at how good he was. It felt like he filled the whole goal and looked unbeatable in our sessions.
Even in the few games he played, he was still carrying a knee injury from pre-season that had meant I had played most of those games, but he still managed to play his part
in the 4-1 win at Forest and the point won at Anfield in those opening games.
As for Shay, well, I could probably be forgiven if he’d become Dan Marino to my Ray Finkle but let’s be honest, he was just a brilliant keeper and an even better bloke. I thought I had a great work ethic, but this fella was on another level and even though I never got anywhere near his level of performance,
I have to thank him for inspiring me to push myself even harder after seeing him at work. Even if he did make some questionable decisions along his career path...
ALOVESUPREME ISSUE260 41
BY DAVID PREECE