Mackems not over Hill as Fulham feel fury

I ADMIT I have a soft spot for London and look forward to our away days there, which are always full of peculiarities.

The homeless people are more aggressive, the streets are paved with litter instead of gold and the journey from King’s Cross train station to Putney Bridge tube, by Craven Cottage, takes longer than the train from Sunderland to London.

Still, Fulham is a great day out. There’s the lovely stroll through the leafy Bishops Park and the stadium is a grand old thing. Nowadays the top flight is full of identical looking arenas, many of them devoid of character, so Craven Cottage’s Victorian architecture is great for those of us who remember the game before Sky TV and the Premier League.

It’s just a shame that Jimmy Hill had to come along and ruin the day.

Yes you read that right. Sunderland fans are great at holding a grudge. After getting Don Goodman sent off in a game against Millwall in 1994, Kasey Keller has been booed every time he has returned to Wearside with a variety of different clubs.

And after Jimmy Hill single-handedly relegated us in 1977, you can imagine the sort of contempt those of us at the Stadium of Light still hold him in.

It might be hard to believe nowadays, but way back when we weren’t always this brilliant. In fact back in the Christmas of the 1976/77 season we were rooted to the bottom of the old First Division.

Whether it was desperation or inspiration I’m not sure, but we threw the kids in.

Local striker Gary Rowell joined the first team, as well as the likes of Shaun Elliott and Kevin Arnott.

Within two weeks we’d beaten Bristol City 1-0, Middlesbrough 4-0, West Ham 6-0 and West Brom 6-1.

It was a remarkable run of results and meant we went into the last day of the season only needing a point at Everton to ensure survival.

The other two sides hoping not to fill the final relegation hot spot were Coventry and Bristol City who played each other whilst we were at Goodison.

The only way the other two could avoid the drop was by drawing, but only if Sunderland lost.

As if by magic, then Coventry chairman Jimmy Hill delayed the kick-off of Coventry’s clash. As we played out a 2-0 defeat to Everton, Hill put a message across the PA system to let the crowd, and players, know we had lost. That meant the two sides, who were drawing at the time, only needed to avoid scoring against each other to both stay up.

Reports from Highfield suggest the last 15 minutes of that game had as much action as your average Geordie sees in a classy nightclub.

Most teams would have been punished for that sort of sin, but Coventry got away with it and Sunderland were down. It was my first experience of relegation, the first time football broke my heart and I’ve never forgotten, or forgiven him since then. I’m not alone.

When Hill was paraded to Fulham fans last Saturday to celebrate the unveiling of Johnny Haynes’ statue, the Sunderland end of Craven Cottage went berserk and the other former team mates of Haynes looked on bemused. In the end the police hastily ushered Hill out of sight. A victory to Sunderland, but it’s a shame that’s all we won on the day.

Despite having the better of the chances, the gods dictated that it wasn’t to be.

The world saw a first in football as Kieran Richardson managed to hit the post three times from one free kick and then we were treated to the all-too familiar sight of refereeing incompetency to deny us victory when we did actually net from another excellent Rico free kick.

All things considered, it was a decent warm up for this weekend’s derby against Newcastle. We had the better of a game against a very average Premier League side, which is exactly what we’ll face this Saturday.

If we beat the Mags then Sunderland will see its biggest party in years.

If we lose, then Roy Keane will need to sign his much-publicised contract extension pretty quickly to appease us.

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