On this day Len Ashurst was appointed as Sunderland manager, following the sacking of Alan Durban.
Lenny the Lion spent three years “on the groundstaff” at Liverpool as a youth, winning seven England Youth caps while training as a printer, before being released in 1957. While playing for Wolves’ third team as an amateur, Sunderland made an approach for his services, so to avoid breaking the professional contract promise he’d been offered at Molyneux, Len asked to go back to his printing apprenticeship and signed for Prescot Cables. Very soon the move to Wearside came to fruition, and the rest is history. His debut came in September 1958 against Ipswich, on the same day as Lads he’d come to regard as team-mates for over a decade – Cec Irwin and Jimmy McNab.
Probably our most highly regarded full-back paring of all time, (was it Cec or was it Len, clattered that winger just then?) Cec and Len, the flowerpot men, quickly became regulars. In 1964 they were part of the side that gained promotion, and our defence was the basis for that. Alongside such club legends as Hurley, Anderson, Harvey, and McNab, those full-backs ruled the back line.
The pair racked up 809 appearances between them, with Len’s 458 making him our most “capped” outfield player, and second only to Monty in the overall appearances list. As well as an England U23 cap, Len also managed four goals – and five own goals, compared to Cec’s one goal and four own goals. Len was awarded a testimonial in November 1969, against the mags at Roker. Level at the break thanks to goals from Moncur and an OG by Frank Clarke, Bobby Kerr went in goal after the break, with Monty scoring a penalty and Tueart grabbing two as we won 4-2. As Cec and Len’s careers ran more or less contemporaneously, it was inevitable that when they left, there’d be big gaps to fill in our defence.
In March 1971, he left to become player-manager at Hartlepool, where he managed a couple of goals in his 46 appearances over the next two seasons. From there, there were spells in charge at Gillingham, Sheff Wed, Newport (where he won the Welsh Cup and achieved promotion), and Cardiff (where he achieved promotion) before he came back to Roker as manager in March 1984, taking over from Alan Durban (after Pop Robson’s single game in charge).
One of his first acts was to bring Gary Bennett from Cardiff – big thanks for that, Len – and we got off to a decent start, winning the Gore Trophy on the Isle of Man. With some players we’d actually heard of being signed (Clive Walker, David Hodgson, Howard Gayle, Roger Wylde, and Steve Berry. Well, perhaps we’d not heard of Steve) we set off well in the league with a win over Southampton, Benno scoring on his debut. From then on, though, our league form was patchy but our League Cup form was superb as we disposed of Palace, Forest, Spurs, Watford, and Chelsea to reach the final. In January 1985, we’d bought Ian Wallace for £1 million, but the goals never materialised and Len made the cardinal error of playing him in the final ahead of in-form Colin West.
We lost 0-1 to Norwich, Westy went to Watford where he scored more goals in the rest of the season than Sunderland did (seven to our five in twelve games), and both finalists were relegated. Naturally, this cost Len his job, and he was replaced by Bobby Saxton.
Len worked with the Kuwaiti and Qatari national sides as well as club side Al Wakrah, before returning to England with Blackpool in 1988 as assistant manager. A return to Cardiff came a year later, and in 1991 he went to work in Malaysia with Pahang. A single season at Weymouth was his last managerial job, before he joined the FA as an administrator, mostly concerned with the academy system. After, that, Len was a match assessor, casting his beady eye over the performances of the match officials while living on Wearside. In 2014 he was inducted into the League Managers’ Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of service.
Len passed away aged 82 in September 2021, and will always be remembered at Sunderland for all those games, and all those lion-hearted performances.
