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On This Day (9th June 1979): New manager in the Sunderland hot seat sets out his stall

It’s 45 years since supporters were told of Ken Knighton’s first steps in charge as manager of Sunderland…

Ken Knighton lines up alongside some of his soon to be assembled coaching team (Peter Eustace left, George Herd second right, Frank Clark right). Image taken from the 1979-80 Oldham Athletic Anglo-Scottish Cup edition of the Roker Review.

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Clark and Eustace would initially join Knighton at the town’s Gelt House Hotel whilst they looked for more permanent accommodation, but for the latter the immediate focus was moving the club upwards and back into the topflight. Richardson quoted him as saying that having worked well on the training pitch, he now wanted to test himself as a manager, and that he was grateful for the encouragement received from the fans so far. Aware that everybody would need to be pulling in the same direction, another early step had been to call together all the staff “from secretaries to tea ladies” for an informal meeting, whilst plans were being made to meet with every Supporters Association branch.

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In the same edition of the paper, just underneath the SAFC piece, was a short section about Steve Cram (later MBE and then CBE), an emerging local runner who had made the tough decision to forgo the chance of another English Schools title so that he could compete in a multinational athletics event at Gateshead International Stadium instead. The famous Sunderland supporter would go on to achieve great success in the 1980s, and for the first few years of that era things weren’t too bad for his beloved club either with Knighton achieving promotion at the first attempt and the Lads then establishing themselves in Division One.

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Such sporting achievements would often be needed to provide an element of comfort in places like the North East and Knighton’s native South Yorkshire in the coming years, with that incoming administration going on to deliver several cruel blows to large parts of society as the country went through several painful episodes and transformations. That was all for down the line though, and on Wearside the early signs were pointing to a more positive period – in footballing terms at least.