Only two Atkinsons have featured for the Lads, and they share a birthday.
Born this day in 1966 in Chester le Street is Paul Atkinson, who excelled as a youngster and joined us form Pelton Boys Club as an associate schoolboy in 1981. A childhood Sunderland fan, he made his first-team debut in the Gore Trophy on the Isle of Man, scoring against an Isle of Man XI on August 5th 1983. He’d have appeared a day earlier, but the ferry broke down, meaning that we were stuck in Lancashire along with St Mirren and Burnley. A tricky, pacey winger, Paul emerged as our star or the tournament as he followed up that 5-1 win with the only goal in the 36th minute against Burnley. He repeated the feat, again in the 36th minute, in the final against St Mirren as we took the trophy home and had a potential star in our ranks, aged only seventeen. He made his league debut, alongside Paul Bracewell, in a 1-1 draw at home to Norwich on the opening day of the 83-84 season, but didn’t turn professional until November, not long after scoring his first goal, against Wolves. Already an England Youth player (eventually amassing eighteen caps), he ended the season with that single goal in eight appearances, and over the following three campaigns played forty games as the club suffered two relegations in three seasons. In the 87-88 campaign, he was a crucial member of the squad that roared out of Division Three at the first time of asking, scoring five times in 28 games.
However, that was his last campaign in the stripes, as we sold him to Port Vale for a paltry £20,000 in the summer of 1988. He started life in Burslem at an impressive pace, scoring three times in four league games before disaster struck, as he suffered an injury which would ultimately end his career. Over the three seasons he was there, he managed only six games despite attempts at recuperation via loans at Stafford United in early 1989 and Hartlepool a year later. His eleven appearances for Pools proved to be his last in the professional game, as medical advice forced his retirement in 1991, aged only 25. There followed a brief spell at Gateshead before the boots were put away for good, but Paul has remained a Sunderland fan who is immensely proud of his 76 appearances and seven goals for the Lads.
