On this day in 1993, Sunderland manager Mick Buxton replaced Terry Butcher in the dugout.
Before Buxton was appointed as Sunderland gaffer, he’d spent some time as a coach. The board had supposedly made this decision without consulting then manager Terry Butcher! The team found itself in the relegation zone of the second tier, and Buxton already had long management stints with Huddersfield and Scunthorpe.
So when Butcher was inevitably dismissed in 1993, Buxton stepped forward into the manager's role. His first game was a 3-2 loss at home to Nottingham Forest, but the side’s fortunes quickly turned around.
Buxton must have been excellent behind the scenes, as Sunderland’s previously-leaky defence began to shore up immediately. We conceded just five goals in the next 11 games, including a great run of four consecutive wins in March which led us further up the table and safe from the drop.
The manager has since received heaps of praise from former players, for being organised, well-drilled and making the team extremely hard to beat. One of Buxton’s best tactical moves was moving future club legend Kevin Ball into midfield from defence, where he would go on to cement his legacy at the club.
Impressively, the lads managed to finish a comfortable 12th place after looking like relegation candidates for much of the season. The following season though, goals dried up and fans began to complain that the team was picking up too many draws. Sound familiar?
The 1994/95 season actually started very well, with Sunderland going unbeaten in their first eight games- for the first time post-war. However, six of those eight games were draws, highlighting Buxton's issue with getting the best out of his attacking talent.
Despite retaining their defensive solidity, the football was boring to watch and Sunderland’s main goal threat, Don Goodman, was sold in November- along with long-serving midfielder Gary Owers.
The club saw a massive slump after October, where they went from the dizzying heights of 8th all the way down to 20th in March. Ultimately, Buxton hadn’t taken the club forward, or indeed backwards. We were in the exact same position when he left as we were when he was sacked by Bob Murray.
Mick Buxton was one of Sunderland’s must functional, uninspiring, forgettable managers. But the shining light is that if it wasn’t for him, Peter Reid would never have been appointed and we could have found ourselves in a completely different situation...
