On this day, Darren Williams was born in Middlesbrough in 1977. Williams would go on to make over 250 appearances for the Black Cats in an eight year spell at the club.
He started his career off at York City, where he even beat Manchester United 3-0 in 1995 in the League Cup. It wasn’t long before we signed him in '96 for £50,000. Looking back on it now, it was a bargain.
He wore his heart on his sleeve and never gave anything less than 110%. He even played a part in getting Arsenal legend Patrick Viera sent off in a season opener at the SOL at the beginning of the 2000/01 season, winning the game 1-0 thanks to a trademark Quinny header.
Patrick Viera caught Williams in the face and as anyone would, he went down. Arsene Wenger however was furious at Darren, after the match he said this:
"Patrick Vieira has tried to play football today and some other players have not tried, and in the end, he is sent off because he had a bad reaction. First I'd send off the guy of Sunderland. I looked at him after the game and I didn't see anything on his face.”
His most memorable moment of his career came in an SAFC shirt, and if you were to ask fans about the 19th of March in 1997 you might see a smile on their face. We were playing Middlesbrough, remember this was Williams’ home town, and they were fighting relegation from the Premier League.
We had a free kick on the side of the box, it was whipped to the front post and Williams timed his run to perfection, cutting across the box and beating the keeper to the ball for him to guide it into essentially an open net. Many fans would argue that this header alone warranted the £50k.
After scoring against his boyhood club, Williams said:
"I'll have to put up the barricades... I'd better lock the car in the garage, too."
After leaving Sunderland he had spells at many sides, usually all Northern, he played for Cardiff, Hartlepool, Bradford, Dundee, Gateshead, Gainsborough and then finally Whitby, where he ended up managing for a period.
To this day he still supports the Lads and wants them to do well as you can see on his twitter.
Here's to you Dazza, Happy Birthday!
