I remember the game well , it was my first away trip outside of London. Went by coach which pulled into some services somewhere in north Yorkshire. The place was full of Newcastle supporters , we thought this could be dodgy but they were great and wished us luck. I stood in a terraced paddock , right next to the tunnel and got a close up view of Graham as he came off on the stretcher. His face was a mess , blood everywhere. Richie Bowman had given us the lead but after the incident Sunderland went on to win 4-1 with Killer being in goal.
A bloke called Finney done him IIRC. Didn’t Killer give him some pay back in that or a subsequent game or is my memory playing tricks🤔.
Tom Finney.
When Finney played for Cambridge a couple of years later, several of Buster Tutt's Charlton 1st team mates padded out our side for the reserve team fixture at The Valley.
Finney was given a torrid time, as individual players mercilessly took it in turn to clog him hard in retribution. The referee more or less seemed to turn a blind eye; I wonder if he'd been tipped off?
I believe a heavily battered and bruised Finney never came out for the 2nd half.
did it happen at the valley? because i have a memory of him laying on the ground with loads of people around him? maybe it was just a dream? it was though, a terrible loss, he had a good future ahead of him had that not happened?
Sunderland away
I must of dreamt it @LenGlover. Though I did go to Sunderlands old ground, Roker Park between 76-79. Naturally we lost 1-0:(
If memory serves me correctly, it was August 1976 that Graham played in a pre season friendly at Folkestone. I was standing behind the goal and managed to speak to him. He was trying hard to regain full fitness after the horrendous injury caused by that swine Finney. I wished Graham luck, but sadly he never made it back into the first team.
A bloke I used to know on the old East Terrace had kept a list dating back to the 1940s of opposing team players who had caused serious career threatening injuries to our men. He called it his 'Death List', a title which would not be legally acceptable nowadays. It was as much as we could do to stop him and several others invading the pitch when Finney returned with Cambridge United, kidnapping him and throwing him off the Woolwich Ferry!
I note our next fixture is against Bristol Rovers. Are they not in the rogues gallery of characters who damaged our lads?
Graham has some great stories. He shared an original manuscript with me in confidence a few years ago and it was obvious there was the basis of a good book, but I didn’t think it would do as well as he hoped, so glad to hear it’s been taken forward.
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A bloke I used to know on the old East Terrace had kept a list dating back to the 1940s of opposing team players who had caused serious career threatening injuries to our men. He called it his 'Death List', a title which would not be legally acceptable nowadays. It was as much as we could do to stop him and several others invading the pitch when Finney returned with Cambridge United, kidnapping him and throwing him off the Woolwich Ferry!
I note our next fixture is against Bristol Rovers. Are they not in the rogues gallery of characters who damaged our lads?
Maybe not a death list now but we could give him a severe Chinese burn.