On this day in 1995, Steve Agnew made his Sunderland debut in a 0-0 draw with Oldham, after he signed from Leicester City for £250,000.
Days after he was signed by the ever eccentric Mick Buxton, Agnew made his debut away to Oldham. A young Chris Makin started for Oldham that day at right back.
Within weeks of Agnew signing for Sunderland, Peter Reid took over from Mick Buxton and the midfielder would play a vital role in Reid’s title winning side of 1995-96, making 28 starting appearances. Agnew scored a memorable goal at Old Trafford, levelling an FA Cup 3rd round tie 1-1 that would end 2-2 with a last minute Eric Cantona goal after Craig Russell thought he'd won it for Sunderland.
Upon promotion to the top-flight Agnew, like our form in our first Premier League season, was poor. He started in Sunderland's first nine Premier League games, but injuries and poor form meant he fell out of favour with Reid. To put these injuries into perspective, he was once Blackburn's record signing for £700,000 but was only able to play four games for the club.
After an away game at Coventry on New Year's Day he didn't play another league game until the following season, following our relegation. Agnew started the 97-98 season with a place in our starting eleven, starting three of our first four games, but suffered an Achilles injury which would rule him out for the rest of the season.
Agnew was released by Sunderland in 1998, and would move on to spend three years at York City, before moving to Gateshead. The midfielder took up coaching whilst at Gateshead, and would go on to hold coaching roles at Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and West Brom (following Steve Bruce around). He is now assistant manager at Aberdeen, seemingly finally escaping the clutches of Bruce.
