It had all started back in the old trophy room in Roker Park. It was 5th December 1995. The room looked quite big as it had white walls and a beige coloured ceiling, and had pictures of the past and present greatest footballers who had played for Sunderland A.
F.C during the 1900s. They were placed on the left and right hand side walls.Straight ahead of me, when I walked in the double doors, was the trophy cabinet.
I remember a shiver had crept down my spine as I had walked further into the room. Then when the shiver had gone I had walked over to the cabinet to have a look. It was about ten feet tall and contained; Charlie Hurleys Northern Ireland cap, Horatio Carter’s England cap and also contained Charlie Buchan’s 1931 England Shirt, or what it looked like – a woolly jumper with an England badge on it.There was a big table in the centre of the room with cushioned blue chairs round it and on the table was the old Sunderland crest.
Also in the trophy cabinet, was a football – a mitre multiplex to be exact which brings back a few memories, which you will find out about now.My memory starts with the mitre football in the trophy cabinet. I can remember looking at the football and it reminds me of when I was mascot. I had met John ‘tractor’ Kay and Brian Atkinson, and John had handed me a mitre multiplex ball with the Endsleigh League logo on it that was similar to the football in the trophy cabinet.
Then the music had started for the teams to run out on, then before I knew it I was out on the pitch and all I could hear was the ‘Roker Roar’, all the fans singing and dancing like an ordinary match-day, but this wasn’t an ordinary match-day – this was my match-day!I walked over to the Fulwell End penalty circle and took about six steps backwards, the fans still singing and my heart racing. I can remember looking at my dad up in the T.V gantry filming my every move with a video camera he had borrowed.I had started running toward the ball, fully concentrating on the ball – and before I realised, I had struck it at a tremendous speed for a seven-year-old.
I looked and it was going in the bottom right hand corner. The Fulwell end roaring like the wind still, ready for the match to start.Alec Chamberlain had dived full stretch to get warmed up for the game ahead, when all of a sudden he got a palm to it then my head had dropped, but when I heard a cheer, I knew it wasn’t for anything so my head automatically lifted and I noticed it had hit the post..
….
… and gone in.
Unfortunately while that was going on I found out that my dad had slipped and broken his arm while cheering for me when I scored. This happened as it had been raining all day so it was very wet. When I had gone back to where I had got changed into my strip – the trophy room, I looked at the cabinet and it brings me back to my bedroom, because I now have a picture of the cabinet – the same way I looked at it on that day. That is up on my wall now and I will remember that day for the rest of my life, because I have a programme with my photo in it.
