Page 36 - 364645 LP243221 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 Aug22

After a tumultuous few seasons, we
found ourselves back in the second tier (sound familiar?) thanks to Denis Smith bringing Eric Gates back to life and giving us Marco. In ’88-’89, Bennett, McPhail, Armstrong, the G Force, Ord, Owers, Frankie Gray, Steve Doyle, Agboola, and Pascoe were our backbone, backed up by Big Bad Billy Whitehurst, Tommy Hauser, Paul Lemon, and John Cornforth. Big Billy went to Hull with Iain Hesford mid-season, with Tony Norman to coming up the A19 in exchange, and we finished firmly mid- table in eleventh. Would we take that? Probably.
Peter Reid was the architect of our return to
the top flight in 1996, as we won Division Two by four points thanks to a miserly defence (33 conceded) and an efficient, if unspectacular, attack. The Jarra Arra, Craig Russell, top scored with 13, and Phil Gray was next with eight. ’96-’97 was also unspectacular, but not
in a way that could be described as efficient. Quinny had been Reidy’s big summer signing, and he started well with a brace as we trounced Forest at their place, but knacked his knee not long after. New keeper Tony Coton was badly injured as we lost 0-3 at Southampton, and
Following Swindon’s inability to follow
the rules regarding money, we found ourselves in the top flight in 1990, much
to the annoyance of them up the road. Finished sixth, lost at Wembley, still went up, how very Sunderland. What followed was a season that stuttered from start to finish, with memorable wins, such as that gained thanks to Benno’s last-minute flick over Pallister’s head before cracking it home to beat Man U, followed by defeat at Chelsea. The second half of the campaign saw us hovering just above the drop-zone until a 3-3 draw at Derby in February (therefore a muddy Baseball Ground) after being three up in 23 minutes dropped
in came Perez. There was certainly no fuss with the Russ as he was again top scorer, but with only four. After briefly rising to the heady heights of eleventh in February, it was down to fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, you get the picture. There was hope of salvation if we
us to nineteenth. A lack of goals was our main problem, only just above letting them in, as our top scorers were Marco with nine, Davenport with seven, Armstrong with six, and Pascoe with five. We stayed there until the end, despite a 0-0 against Arsenal in the penultimate game giving us brief hope. The final game saw an exodus from Wearside to Maine Road, where a dramatic game ended 2-3, with a couple from Niall Quinn earning Peter Reid’s side the win and condemning us to relegation. Would we take that? Of course not.
did the right thing in our last game, against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park. Quinn was back, but clearly nowhere near fit and lasted less than an hour, replaced by Bridges as Wearside took over the stadium. Somehow, Coventry contrived to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their 1977 shenanigans by arriving late at White Hart Lane, despite travelling over 100 miles less than us down the same motorway and not having to get across London to Croydon. Despite Wimbledon’s best efforts not to win, they scored in the 85th minute, Coventry managed an unlikely win at Spurs, we were down, again, and someone rode off on a police motorbike. Would we take that? Of course not.
Thankfully, we kept faith in Reidy, and the two following seasons brought us some of the
best football the club has played. Following our record-breaking ’98-’99 season, we hit the Prem like a breath of fresh air. Sorensen kept clean sheets, Quinn and Phillips terrorised established defences, and we finished seventh as Summerbee continued where he’d left
off, Schwarz and Eric Roy arrived, McCann and Rae harried and harassed, and the SoL
36
ALOVESUPREME
ISSUE259