On This Day (6th May 1967): A Neil Martin Masterclass At Roker Park

Neil Martin, Sunderland (Photo by Barratts/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images Despite a fighting draw in our last game at Roker Park against the Busby Babes, we came into this match sixteenth in our third top-tier season since promotion in 1963/64. It had been a season with Ian McColl at the helm that had flattered to deceive, with the jury still out on the Baxter plan (to build the team around the undoubtedly talented but wildly inconsistent Scot), but high hopes for a clutch of young players accrued and developed by a youth system championed by former manager Alan Brown and fed by the legendary scouting of Charlie Ferguson. Sunderland, by the end of this season, would have sold fourteen players and bought three since their return to the top flight.

Whether it was ‘needs must’ or a considered strategy, this season had seen youngsters Colin Todd, Bobby Kerr, Billy Hughes, Colin Suggett and Jimmy Shoulder all make their debuts, and when you consider youngsters John O’Hare and Allan Gauden had already made an impression on the first team, there was a lot to be hopeful about if it could be managed well. Fulham were our opponents at Roker Park on this day. Managed by Vic Buckingham, they were at the wrong end of the table like ourselves.

A look at their team for this game would make you wonder why! In Gibraltar-born Tony Macedo they had a goalkeeper considered by many at the time to be the best uncapped goalkeeper in Britain. George Cohen, England’s 1966 World Cup final full-back, lined up in defence alongside fellow international and County Durham lad Bobby Robson.

Eire international Jimmy Conway, who could play on the wing or in midfield and gave long and valuable service to Fulham alongside his brother John, could be a handful on his day. They also had a young forward who was scoring goals for fun, would go on to fashion a great career in football and play a part in one of Sunderland’s greatest days some six years after this game. Allan ‘Sniffer’ Clarke was still finding his way in the game at this point in his career, but making waves for sure.