On this day in 1967, a certain Ian Porterfield made his Sunderland debut in a 3-3 draw with Newcastle. As you may know, he would go on to score the most important goal in Sunderland AFC's history.
Actually christened John – presumably changing to Ian as it scanned better in songs – he grew up in Lochgelly, and played junior football for Cowdenbeath Royals, Mary Colliery Juveniles, Lochgelly Albert, and Lochore Welfare, having trials with Rangers and Hearts. He actually joined Leeds as an apprentice but got homesick and played a game while on trial at Cowdenbeath before he signed for Raith Rovers in 1964. Three years, 115 games, and 17 goals later, Raith received their highest transfer fee when we paid them £38,000 plus another £5,000 after twenty appearances.
His first season on Wearside, ’67-’68, brought only nine further appearances after his December debut at home to the mags that we drew 3-3, only a couple of days after he arrived. ’68-’69 saw another 31, and we began to really see what a magic wand he had for a left foot. Over the following three seasons he really established himself in the side, and was an ever-present in our famous FA Cup run, managing a total of 50 games in all competitions, and having his best scoring season for us with six strikes. Of course, the last of those came just after half three on May 5th when he volleyed home with his “wrong” foot to send Wearside into paroxysms of delight and Leeds up the Wembley steps for their runner-up medals.
There were obvious calls for a Scotland call-up, but that never happened, probably because we were a second division outfit and there were actually a lot of top-class Scottish midfielders then. In December ’74, Ian was instrumental in our 4-1 win over Portsmouth as we chased promotion but the next day was involved in a car crash and suffered serious head injuries. Our form suffered without him, and despite his return to training much earlier than expected, we finished fourth – and there were no play-offs. He was back with 24 games the following campaign, helping us to the top spot and promotion, but it’s fair to say he was never quite the same player as before the accident and he hadn’t featured in the top flight before a loan spell at Reading in November ’76, and left us in the summer of ’77 without having played another game for us. His Sunderland record of 254 games, bringing 17 goals, will always be remembered for the ’73 Cup win, and he went on to play over a hundred times for Sheffield Wednesday under Jack Charlton, taking on some coaching duties towards the end of his stay, before becoming manager at Rotherham in 1979. Following their becoming Division Three champions in 1981 Ian took over at Sheffield Utd, taking them out of Division Four at the first attempt, and later out of the Third, then had spell at Reading and followed Alex Ferguson into the hot seat at Aberdeen before being in charge at Chelsea when we knocked them out of the FA Cup in ’92.
He was sacked in 1993, making him the first Premier League manager to get the boot, and that was his last manager’s job in British football, as he moved into international management, firstly with Zambia in the wake of an air crash that had taken the lives of several of their top players, and got them to second place in the African Cup of Nations. After that came Zimbabwe, before a brief return to the UK to assist his old mate Colin Todd at Bolton. Back abroad only a few months later, he managed Oman, and Trinidad and Tobago, who he took to Caribbean Cup triumph in 2001before a spell out of the game. In 2003 he returned to club management at Kasame Atante Kotoko in Ghana for a short while, then with Busan I’Park in South Korea for three years where he won the FA Cup. After his return to the international scene with Armenia in 2006, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and sadly passed away on September 11th 2007. I don’t suppose there’s another player in Sunderland’s history who are remembered for one particular goal, and quite rightly so, as Ian played a massive part in making our most famous day as memorable as it is.
