Former Sunderland midfielder Mark Proctor (the first person pictured in the front row) was born on this day in Middlesbrough in 1961. He played 136 games for us in total, scoring 23 times. Proctor was seen as a gifted midfielder with good technical ability and close control. In his youth he had a brief trial with Leeds before signing for his hometown club Boro in 1975. Initially a schoolboy, he turned pro in ‘78. He played regularly for three seasons, making over 100 appearances, before...

The last thing you want to read about in an “on this day” piece is what happened at The Reebok/Toughsheet Community Stadium four years ago ( 0-6, despite debuts for both Jack Clarke and Paddy Roberts , in case you’d forgotten...and if you had, I apologise for bringing it up) so let’s concentrate on what that day meant in terms of the recent history of our club. I’ll happily admit that I’ve never seen the film Sliding Doors, but I do know that it’s responsible for introducing its title to...

On this day in 2008, former Sunderland player, coach and manager Billy Elliott died aged 82. Having started his career with wartime games for Bradford Park Avenue in 1942, Billy’s impressive left-wing performances brought about a move across the Pennines to Burnley in 1951 – for £23,000 but not until he’d asked for the move several times. His 74 league games for the Clarets saw him win five England caps, in which he scored an impressive three times – a much better ratio than his club form of...