OTD: COLIN PASCOE DEBUT

On this day in 1988, Colin Pascoe scored on his debut for Sunderland.

Colin arrived at Roker Park on deadline day 1988, when deadline day was in March, for £70,000. Denis Smith brought the Welsh international from Swansea City, who he’d joined as an apprentice from Afan Nedd schoolboys. He’d already scored 13 times in 34 games for the Swans, who went up into the Third Division (League One in today’s money) via the play-offs, so when we were promoted at the end of the season into the Second Division (the Championship, keep up at the back!) he’d played a big part in two successful campaigns. His debut came at Smith’s old club York City, managed by Bobby “Minging” Saxton (who ended up being Sunderland's assistant manager between 1995 and 2002), when he was a half-time replacement for another debutant, Dougie Maguire. Those 45 minutes were the sum total of Maguire’s Sunderland career. Colin’s 83rd minute goal proved only a consolation, as we lost 2-1, but there were a further three as we stormed to the league title, with Rotherham United, Grimsby Town, York, and Doncaster Rovers going down.

He’d played in all four divisions for Swansea and won the Welsh Cup, his first start being at Anfield, so he knew what going up and down was all about before he joined us. Over the next five seasons his clever footwork kept us entertained and he was the first Sunderland player I saw execute a Cruyff turn, at the Fulwell, when he did it on the corner of the box and curled a left-footer into the far corner against Crystal Palace in September ’88. We ended that season in mid-table obscurity, with Colin’s 12 goals in 47 games proving vital in attaining that position. Top two, in the second tier? Manchester City and Chelsea. The following campaign brought another 42 games and we went up via the play-offs and Swindon Town’s dodgy accountancy. He contributed five goals in 28 games in the 1990/91 season as we found life in the top flight pretty tough and finished second bottom, to add a fourth relegation to his CV. There were 23 appearances in 1991/92, but nearly half were from the bench, and at the end of the season he went back to Swansea, initially on loan but signing permanently a year later. In 1994, he was part of the Jacks team that won the Autoglass Trophy at Wembley. Whilst with us, he gained eight of his 11 Wales caps, was our first Wales international since Ray Daniel in 1957 and was a player who was very enjoyable to watch.

After three years at Swansea, he played a single game for Blackpool then moved to Merthyr Tydfil, for a year, before joining Carmarthen Town. When he eventually retired from playing in 1998, with a dodgy ankle precipitating the end, he joined Cardiff City as youth team coach and, seven years, later returned to Swansea. Another seven years behind the scenes followed, he went with manager Brendan Rogers to Liverpool as assistant gaffer. In the summer of 2015 he was relieved of his duties “after an end of season review” and dropped out of top-level football.