On this day in 1958, Len Ashurst and Cecil Irwin both made their debuts against Ipswich. Cec and Len, the flowerpot men, would go on to be probably our most highly regarded full-pairing of all time.
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.
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 appearance