Making his debut on this day in 1972, against Watford, is legendary left-back Joe Bolton.
Birtley-born Joe became an apprentice with us only a couple of months earlier after graduating from Chester le Street Schoolboys, and started against Watford at Roker Park. In a defence alongside Malone, Pitt, and Horswill, Joe helped keep the Hornets at bay as we ran out 5-0 winners (Watson (2), Pitt, McGiven, Porterfield – not a list of scorers you’d expect). He kept his place for the remaining four games, and featured in all four Anglo Italian Cup matches that followed – I’d like to think he learned a bit about the art of defending from those games against Cagliari and Atalanta, but to be fair to Joe, the Italians probably learned a bit from him. To say he was tough in the tackle is a bit like saying Kevin Phillips scored a goal or two.
There were fourteen games the following season, with competition first from Keith Coleman then Ron Guthrie, and earned him a call-up to the England Youth Squad. He actually played in our first two FA Cup games against Notts County, and was the thirteenth man in the final, sitting on the bench in a Crombie. Possessing a shot almost as fearsome as his tackling, he was an instant hit with the fans because of his no-nonsense approach. If we’d thought of “SHOOOOOT!” before Chris Makin came along, w