On this day in 1973, Big Vic Halom scored his only Sunderland hat-trick in a League Cup Second Round replay, at Roker Park against Derby County.
Hot on the heels of our two wins over Vasas Budapest and a 3-1 defeat of Sheff Wed, we started our League Cup campaign at the Baseball Ground on Monday October 8th. We had a feeling that, even though we weren’t allowed to say things like this in 1973, Bob Stokoe wasn’t that bothered about progress in the domestic competition at the expense of the European one, although Dennis Tueart was the only regular missing, with reserve team captain, John Lathan (a more central striker) taking his place. With former Lad Colin Todd lining up for Cloughie’s side, who’d won the league just a year earlier, we were very much the underdogs – which we’d proved against Leeds, Arsenal, and Man City, was a tag that suited us down to the muddy Baseball Ground.
It all looked to be going according to predictions at half time, as we sat two goals down, but with Joe Bolton on for Micky Horswill for the second half, Lathan scored on 73 and 81 minutes to gain us an unlikely draw and a Roker replay three weeks later. In the intervening period, we lost at Preston, won at Fulham, defeated Sporting Lisbon at home, and drew with Palace at home. As for Derby, they’d lost Cloughie and replaced him with Dave Mackay.
On October 29th, Tueart put us ahead on the half hour in a hard-fought game in which Derby centre forward Roger Davies - six foot two but with the shortest legs in football – tried a flying backheel at the Fulwell that was so wildly inaccurate that folks of a certain age still have a giggle about it. Tueart was fouled in the box, saw his spot-kick saved, Bolton had one cleared off the line, and Hughes had a couple disallowed.
Just as we were planning for the next round against Liverpool, former Lad John O’Hare came off the bench, and within five minutes had helped Archie Gemmill to level with only ten to go. Extra time brought no more goals and with the score level at 1-1, we tossed a coin to see who’d host the replay. We won, and somehow managed to plan a match two days later.
Under the lights at Roker – I feel sorry for those who never got the chance to experience it. A dampish October night, glistening turf, a raucous crowd of 38,460 (9,000 more than the first replay) and a third chance to do a number on Derby. Stokoe named nine of the FA Cup winning side as we lined up: Monty, Malone, Watson, Young, Bolton, Horswill, Porterfield, Kerr, Hughes, Halom, and Tueart, with Rod Belfitt on the bench. I assume the visitors won the toss, as we attacked the Fulwell in the first half. Despite their best efforts, our defence stood firm and Monty was well protected to keep it goalless at the break.
Then it all changed. Vic Halom had possibly his finest 45 minutes in a Sunderland shirt, and simply got stuck into Todd and McFarlane – arguably English Football’s finest central defence at the time. It took only two minutes for him to open the scoring and set the Roker Roar (again, I feel sorry for those who never experienced it), already in full voice, into overdrive. Vic arrived at the back post and left the ball in the net and fullback Ron Webster wrapped around the post. We simply urged the Lads forward against a Derby side bristling with household names like Boulton, Nish, Todd, McFarlane, Gemmill, Hector, Davies, McGovern, Newton, Hinton, and Webster – who had to leave the field a few minutes after his woodwork-related incident.
Again, it was O’Hare who came on, but only a few minutes after that change, Vic grabbed his second. With thirty minutes to go, our defence remained unbreakable and Vic was running riot up front and the scent of victory wafted across the terraces and seats. Halom made sure of that on 77 when he completed his hat trick in front of an ecstatic crowd. When the whistle went, that crowd were celebrating as if we’d won the competition and not just progressed to the third round, Big Vic stuffed the ball up his shirt, the players punched the air, and a dramatic night was complete. Had Vic raised his game because the Rams were his local team growing up? Don’t know, don’t care, he helped give us two of Roker’s most memorable nights in the space of three days - a canny midweek.
Of course, it might all have been so different if not for a nasty tackle in front of the Main Stand against Millwall on January 27th. With Dave Watson having moved to defence (canny idea, that) our central attacking duties had been shared between Hughes and Tueart, so Bob Stokoe brought in a “proper” centre forward in Billy’s big brother John Yogi Hughes. Half an hour in, that tackle arrived and that was Yogi’s last professional game. Stokoe went shopping again, bought Vic, and the rest is history. He might be remembered as a typically British centre forward, but although born in Burton, our barrel-chested hero is of Hungarian heritage. When we played in Budapest, he was meeting several family members for the first time and was worried about his appearance, as he’d had a couple of teeth knocked out in a recent match.
I don’t think many players have slotted into a Sunderland side as quickly as Vic did - he struck up an immediate understanding with fellow forwards Tueart and Hughes as those two moved about in our fluid formation, and he remained the focal point up front. His goal against Man City in that cup replay is one of the best seen at our old home, in what was voted its game of the century. Have a look for it online, it’s worth the effort even if it is all in monochrome.
His other goal in that campaign was a simpler affair in front of our fans filling Hillsborough’s Kop when he slotted past Bob Wilson after Jeff Blockley had fallen over to gift Vic a clear run at goal. That, of course, allowed us to play at Wembley, where he had the ball in the net again, but as it was in David Harvey’s arms when Vic barged him over the line it wasn’t allowed.
42 goals in 139 games...Vic Halom, Vic Halom, Vic Halom, Lala Lala La –laaa!
