Page 30 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

DON GOODMAN
BY MICHAEL CONROY
The Don. The most appropriately named player to pull on the red and white stripes in my view. There were some big boots to fill after Marco left. Then Goodman came along. We signed him from West Brom mid-season, shortly after the early rounds of the FA Cup (more on that later) and West Brom were suffering the ignominy of playing in the third tier at the time (the shame!) so he wasn’t really all that well known and he was signed for £900,000 which seemed an incredible amount of money at the time. He was a big signing, but I’m not sure many of us knew anything about him. We soon would.
The first thing to say about Don Goodman is that he had a moustache, and that is always a good thing (see Peter Beagrie). Sunderland had only had a sprinkling of black forwards previously; Howard Gayle is probably the only one who will be well remembered so Don Goodman coming in was a bit of a ground-breaker for SAFC and we welcomed him with open arms. He was like an express train,
a big bulky express train. When a through ball, or
a direct ball sent a chase off between a central defender and Goodman he fired his engine up. The legs which were comparable in muscle with Marco himself pumped and you would bet your house on
Goodman winning it. They could try and hold him off with physicality, but The Don wouldn’t stand for that. Goodman had everything: pace and power and a rocket of a shot.
Phil Gray was quiet and finessed at times. Goodman was fierce and fast. The fact that together they were christened the G-Force illustrates how much we had yearned for a replacement for Gates and Gabbiadini and since they had left, this was the first time where it seemed possible. Phil Gray was a part of that of course, but for the first time we had seen that there was life after Marco, and Goodman was the reason for that. Don Goodman was also the cause of an argument between my father and I when he had made me leave the match early when it was 0-0 against Leicester. As we walked back to The Howard Arms we heard the roar. Goodman had scored a late winner.
Sunderland had signed John Byrne a little earlier than Goodman in 1991, from there John Byrne would go on to almost set history by scoring in every round of the FA Cup until the ill-fated final at Wembley. Don Goodman was not part of that run despite being at the club. He was cup tied. Due to West Brom’s lowly position he had participated in a first-round 6-0 win against Marlow. Goodman was then restricted for the rest of the run.
It’s impossible to say whether he would have made a difference, but I would loved to have seen him in a run off against Mark Wright in the final.
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