On this day in 1961, Republic of Ireland international striker John Byrne was born. The ‘92 FA Cup hero would play 33 games for the club, scoring 15 times.
John Byrne’s first goal would not come until his second league game, where we would play against Watford and the ‘Irish Manc’ would slot two past the Watford defence for a resounding 3-1 victory.
Byrne’s transfer to Sunderland came via his relationship with manager Denis Smith. This was because Smith had signed John as a youngster when he began his career at York City.
This wouldn't be the first time that Smith tried to sign the fair-haired forward for the Black Cats. There was a previous attempt while Byrne was at French club Le Havre, but they were not willing to sell at the time.
Sunderland fans will mostly remember John Byrne for his run in the 1992 FA Cup where he scored in every round of the FA Cup, except for the final against Liverpool where we were defeated at the old Wembley 2-0. Ian Rush and Michael Thomas scored of course to win the cup for Liverpool. Despite the loss, Byrne was mistakenly handed a winners medal after the game! Perhaps it was a fair reward for such a good scoring record in the previous rounds.
During that run SAFC caused an upset against Chelsea in the quarter-final, winning 3-2 over the two legs and beating Norwich City in the semi-final 1-0 to make it to Wembley.
But John Byrne would only serve Sunderland for one season as he would leave for Millwall. After a few more transfers, Byrne would officially retire in 2001 and is now a musculoskeletal podiatrist with the NHS strangely enough.
Such was his impact during his one season on Wearside, the 1992 away kit is affectionately known by fans as the ‘Byrne’ kit. ALS even have ‘Byrne Socks’, which are available on our online store and are the perfect gift for any SAFC-mad relatives!
