BORN ON THIS DAY: JON MCLAUGHLIN

Born on this day is former Sunderland keeper and Scotland international, Jon McLaughlin. The towering goalkeeper spent two years on Wearside after being brought in by Jack Ross, following our relegation to League One, and made two Wembley appearances with us. Randomly, he signed for Middlesbrough on deadline day this summer!

McLaughlin broke through with Bradford, making his debut at 18 and played for six years. Quickly becoming a fan favourite at Valley Parade, the Scottish shot stopper appeared in their 2013 League Two Play-Off Final win, earning promotion to League One. He was managed by none other than Phil Parkinson, who later managed Jon at Sunderland.

After a contract dispute, McLaughlin left the club in 2014 where he joined Burton Albion who were in League Two. He won promotion again in his debut season with the Brewers. Burton was where McLaughlin made the most appearances in his career, racking up over 130 games in a three-year stint.

After a year at Hearts, the keeper caught fellow Scot Jack Ross’ eye at Sunderland. Along with other Scottish players such as Chris Maguire and Dylan McGeough, McLaughlin’s aim was promotion at the first time of asking. He made his debut in our home win against Charlton, where Lynden Gooch scored a dramatic late winner to get the Jack Ross era off to a winning start. He was a calming influence at the back, commanding his box extremely well.

He was a major part of the side that just missed out on automatic promotion and made their way to the play-off final. The keeper did the basics very well and was certainly underappreciated at the time, certainly in the second season with many fans calling for Lee Burge to start. When Phil Parkinson arrived, he shook things up and decided to bring Burge in for several league games, including Parky’s first match against Wycombe. However, an injury to Burge brought McLaughlin back into the side, and he played for the rest of the season.

When the season was curtailed, and Sunderland missed out on promotion, McLaughlin was allowed to leave on a free transfer to Rangers. This was arguably one of the ownership group's biggest mistakes, as we were left with Lee Burge who looked less than convincing, and we had lost a top League One goalkeeper just to save a bit of money.

At Rangers, McLaughlin kept an outstanding eleven clean sheets in his first twelve matches, which was a record of 92%! Initially he was backup to Allan McGregor, who at 39 years old was still an excellent keeper pulling off unbelievable saves. However, Jon became Giovanni van Bronckhorst's number one and continued to perform well in his home country but he was slowly phased out of the starting squad under Michael Beale (sorry for mentioning his name), with Rangers signing Jack Butland, allowing Jon to leave. They never got any offers that they deemed acceptable so McLaughlin remained at Rangers but was getting very little game time.

He was released by Rangers at the end of the 23/24 season and moved to Swansea on a free, entering his senior playing years even as a keeper. He seemed happy to take on the backup role, whilst still having the rare chance to play in a competitve league and dish out his knowledge to the future generation. He only played once for Swansea in the FA Cup.

In the transfer window just gone, Jon returned to the North East, joining Championship side Middlesbrough. They made it official on deadline day but apparently he'd been training with the Teessiders for six weeks. Much like his Swansea move, his role is to be an experienced head and backup, rather than direct competition for the number one shirt.