Page 18 - 370167 LP253351 A Love Supreme Magazine - A5 48pp (Issue 260) v2

FOUR
COLIN TODD
BY SOBS
When talking about local boys done good, they don’t come much classier than Colin Todd. He simply oozed quality. The right-sided defender was equally comfortable as a centre-half or a full-back, although it was largely alongside Charlie Hurley that his Sunderland appearances were made.
Born in Chester le Street in 1948, Toddo joined us in 1964 as an apprentice and signed professional forms two years later and quickly put at ease the minds of those who thought that, at a mere 5’9”, he was too small for a central defender. His coach in the youth side was a certain Brian Clough, who was to feature in Toddo’s game later in his career. He was part of the side that reached the final of the Youth Cup in 1966, graduating to the first team squad soon after, and making his debut at Chelsea in September that year, as a sub for Charlie Hurley. He went on to make 24 appearances that season, including three in the epic FA Cup 5th round against Leeds, although we were shorn of Hurley’s services for most of the season due to a combination of injury and manager Ian McColl not liking him much. He added to those in the summer of
1967 when Sunderland disguised themselves as Vancouver Royal Canadians for a dozen games in which Toddo bagged his first goal.
Unusually for a defender at the time, he was an exciting player to watch. There was no such thing as a full-back doing a Cruyff turn in his own box, in fact, our very own Cec and Len were
as unique as defenders got, with their overlapping antics. However, Toddo could ping a sixty-yard pass across the pitch onto a marra’s toe, remain cooler than Michael Bridges, but
still put in a fearsome tackle if the necessity arose. He was an ever-present in 1967-68 as we finished fifteenth and he missed only one game the following season as we successfully battled relegation with Alan Brown back in charge. His impressive
form quickly made him a favourite with the fans and he was
the reason I tried to play as a half-back, grabbing the number
4 shirt at school before anybody else got the chance. Let’s just say I fooled nobody, but I did paint “Toddo” on my schoolbag, in blue paint, as it was the only colour I could find.
His form was also getting him noticed by a wider audience, and we feared we might lose our rising star to one of the in-form clubs. He added to his England Youth caps by being picked for the Under 23 national side, as we sang “who is the captain of the Under 23s? Colin Toddo is his name” although if you got close enough to the pitch at Roker you’d hear Monty shout “Away, Toddy!”
There were 45 appearances in 1969-70, but no amount of stern defensive work by Toddo could save us as we went down,
with Hurley having left the previous summer. Cec and Len
were coming towards the end of their careers, and relegation meant that other clubs came sniffing around the jewel in our crown. Our chairman, Keith Collings, was quoted as telling fans “If you want us to keep Colin Todd, come and see him play.” Obviously, not enough of us did, and in February 1971 he was gone. His final appearance in the stripes was an awful 0-4 defeat by Cardiff at Roker, alongside Ritchie Pitt and in front
of only 11,566. Not enough to keep him, obviously. Despite Brian Clough saying that his Derby wouldn’t be signing Toddo because they couldn’t afford him, he signed him the same day for £175,000, a record for a defender at the time, and only about the equivalent of £20 million in today’s money.
In his seven years at Derby, he won the League title twice, started his 27 game England career, and was voted PFA Player of the Year. He followed this with a year at Everton, and three at Birmingham before re-joining Cloughie at Forest for a couple of years. After short spells at Oxford and Luton, and a game
for Vancouver Whitecaps, he retired at the grand old age of 35 with well over 700 games to his credit. After a few quiet years, he became manager at Boro in 1991 and over the next 16 years he bossed Bolton, Swindon, and Bradford before having a go in Denmark at Randers. A brief spell at Darlo preceded
a return to Randers and then a while at Esbjerg, where the ferries go.
Colin Todd, 191 games and three goals. Pure class.
18 ALOVESUPREME ISSUE260