Page 22 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

NEVER GO BACK
Since those heady days 143 years
ago when some teachers first donned boots and started kicking a ball about at Blue House Field, we’ve featured 1,122 players. Of those, 20 have actually signed for us twice, two of them three times. Was it worth coming back? Let’s have a look at a side made up of eleven who put pen to paper twice in the Sunderland cause.
GK: Albert McInroy. Born in 1901, this chap started as a left winger before moving between the sticks in the West Lancashire Leagues, and joined us
in 1923 from Leyland FC, where he’d turned pro. For six years his woolly jumper was a Sunderland fixture as he appeared 227 times and became the only goalie to play for England while at Sunderland, playing alongside Warney Creswell in the only England game to feature two Sunderland players. In 1929, though, he moved to the Mags for £2,750. After 143 games, he was transfer listed so he came back in 1934, but didn’t feature before moving
haircut, he was an imposing figure and immediately endeared himself to the fans with a Man of the Match display on his debut as a Quinn header beat Arsenal at the SOL. Pinging 60-yard passes across the field became the norm for Stan, in complete contrast to his defensive partner Emerson Thome, who was Brazilian in name only when it came to passing. After his first goal, a header at West Ham, Stan became less of a fixture and only managed 11 games in 2001-02, being loaned to West Brom for the end of the season. There were a mere three appearances in 2002-03 before Martin O’Neill took him to Celtic, where he won the double. However, former Celtic team mate Roy Keane brought him back to Wearside in 2006, and he helped us to promotion, but the following season, Nyron became first choice and Stan went to Burnley on loan before we let him go and he vanished for a few years before emerging in management back in Slovakia. Worth coming back? Yes.
CB/LB: George McCartney made 157 appearances between 2000 and 2006, being Player of the Year in ’04-’05 as we won the Championship. Injury meant he missed most of the awful season that followed, and he moved to West Ham in August 2006. Two years later he was back, as Roy Keane made him a regular, but after Steve Bruce arrived a series of injuries restricted his appearances. With Kieran Richardson established as left back, George went on loan to Leeds (twice) and West Ham. A permanent move back to the Hammers came in 2012 as he cited lack of communication with Martin O’Neill, but he was released two years later. Worth coming back? Not really, as his second spell was a bit of a mess.
CM: Danny Hegan. Scottish Ulsterman Danny signed for us in 1961 as a teenager but left two years later without dirtying his boots. He returned, after lengthy
to Leeds a year later. After 67 league games, he moved to Gateshead where he played another 71 times while running the Crown Hotel on the High Street. Despite being officially retired, he turned out for Stockton during the war, and later ran pubs in Houghton le Spring, where he died in 1985. Worth coming back? No.
RB: Don Gow was born in 1868 in Blair Atholl and arrived from Rangers 23 years later to turn pro with us. A leading sprinter, he’d captained Scotland aged just 20 in his only international game just before he joined us and was probably the first non- English player to represent the Football League. He won the League Championship in 1892, having played 21 times and scored his solitary Sunderland goal, but immediately went back to Rangers. Only for a year, though, as he was back on Wearside in 1893, staying for four seasons and playing a further 90 games and winning the Championship again in 1894. Perhaps finishing the season second bottom and scoring an own goal precipitated his move to New Brighton Tower, but spells at Millwall Athletic and Girvan followed before he settled in Boro, where he passed away in 1945. Worth coming back? Yes
CB: Stan Varga. Slovakian Stan arrived from Slovan Bratislava in 2000 as Reidy looked to strengthen our defence in the Prem. At 6’2” and with a huge
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