Born on this day in 1970 in Murton, County Durham, is former Sunderland defender Dickie Ord.
Ord made his debut for Sunderland, his boyhood club, as a 17 year old against Gretna in pre-season 1987, also featuring in the next warm-up at Harrogate, and made his competitive debut against Southend United in November the same year. It was a perfect introduction for the young defender as he featured in a massive 7-0 victory, one of the most memorable in years. Eric Gates scored four, Paul Atkinson scored two, and Gabbiadini also scored. In front of the noisy crowd at Roker Park, his debut nerves proved too much and he had come off after 68 minutes with cramp, with his replacement Michael Heathcote making his senior debut. In 1990 there was a brief loan at York, then he became a fixture in the Sunderland ranks.
Ord’s versatility was helpful for the team and he was initially switched about from centre half to full back and even featured in midfield. It seemed every manager had a different role for Ord initially. The back four when the young defender broke into the squad, was menacing, with John Kay, John MacPhail and Benno all in contention. Ord was technically superior to these players and had a wand of a left foot – which was highlighted with a dream of a cross in January 1997 at Roker which so baffled Tony Adams of Arsenal that he could do no more than swing his boot and slash it past David Seaman to give us a 1-0 victory. His longevity at the club warranted a testimonial match, as he’d joined after leaving Easington Comp and he went almost immediately into the Sunderland team, eventually becoming a fixture.
In over a decade at the club he helped us win promotion to the top flight twice (1990 and 1996) and achieve runners-up spot in the FA Cup (1992). He also seamlessly made the step up to Premier League football, spawning the famous chant ‘Who needs Cantona, when we’ve got Dickie Ord’. It’s rare that chants get made about full backs, even rarer at Sunderland it seems, but Ord warranted it – perhaps his performances in the centre had something to do with it. Even fewer have their chants released as a single! On his day, he was an outstanding defender. Most Sunderland fans’ best memory will be his 35-yard strike against Grimsby in front of the Clock Stand and the crazy celebration that followed. As a local lad, you could always guarantee that he would work hard for the shirt and it seemed his career at Sunderland would last forever and he also chipped in with 8 goals in his time at the club, with the one against Grimsby being the pick of the bunch.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Reidy quite obviously fancied other defenders ahead of Dickie, and his appearances dwindled after the arrival of Reid. Perhaps it was Dickie’s answer when asked his opinion of the new boss that did for him “he’s got bigger lugs than me.” Injury also robbed Ord of the chance to play Steaua Bucharest in his own testimonial in July 1996. There is something tragic-comical about watching most of your own testimonial from the stands, as we lost 0-1 to a side that incurred three bookings, one for a confrontation with Steve Agnew that saw both players substituted for the good of that game soon after. I think Dickie would have loved to have been the one to exact retribution.
Injury troubles cost him his first team place in the 1997-98 campaign, and the writing was one the wall.” As it turned out, we robbed QPR for around £675,000 which, with that club in debt, this was a lot of money to lay out on a player. Ray Harford signed Ord in the summer of 1998 but Ord was injured before he played a single League game for QPR, and never appeared in a competitive game for them, being forced to retire from professional game, after two year on the side-lines, in 2000. It was a really disappointing end to a great career, but he used his experience to good effect when he moved into management with Durham City in the Northern League. He left the club, but returned to help out manager Lee Collings in 2009, when he worked for nothing as the club was effectively penniless. He resigned in October 2012, just two months before releasing his autobiography – unsurprisingly titled ”Who Needs Cantona When We’ve Got Dickie Ord.”
