On This Day (28 April 1979): Cardiff Crash Sunderland’s Promotion Party
The Bluebirds’ visit to Roker Park was supposed to be Sunderland’s day of triumph, but it sadly wasn’t.
Sunderland had thumped Sheffield United just three days earlier — amid a barnstorming finish and with a hat-trick from Wilf Rostron — to go top of the division. Steady nerves and composure were all that was needed to clinch promotion in their last two games but unfortunately, no one told Cardiff City that this was supposed to be a Sunderland carnival as the Lads went down 1-2 at Roker Park, in front of an expectant and biggest crowd of the season of 36,526. Three days earlier, manager Billy Elliott had said that they needed to be “locked up if they threw promotion away from this situation” — and throw it away they did.
The Lads were at it right from the start, but it was a high-speed, headless chicken-type of approach that involved launching crosses into the box that were too high for the attackers and meat and drink for City goalkeeper Ron Healey and commanding centre back Phil Dwyer. It was all too frantic and that was the pattern throughout the game, with Cardiff reduced to a few sporadic attacks, but Sunderland not composed enough at the other end. I suppose the pressure and the smell of promotion got to the team, and despite being in pole position and having been one of the highest-scoring teams in the league, today (and the season) wasn’t to be.
Their record signing Ronnie Moore had a couple of chances on the break, with Steve Whitworth blocking one, and Barry Siddall tipping another over the bar for their only corner of the half. But on the twenty sixth minute, it was third time lucky as he shrugged off a challenge from Shaun Elliott to move smoothly into the area and beat Siddall from twelve yards. It was a clinical finish compared to the hectic stuff at the other end and Healey had plenty to do, with ten corners alone in the first half, but he was rarely in real trouble.
The Welsh team camped unashamedly on the edge of their own box, frustrating Sunderland and if anything, making them even more frantic. The pressure could’ve been eased slightly on the fifty ninth minute, when Dwyer brought down Alan Brown in the box. It seemed like a harsh decision, and maybe it was justice that Rostron’s spot kick was saved by Healey.