On This Day (24th July 1975): Will he stay or will he go now?

07/24/2024 01:00 AM

After going close to promotion in 1974/75, Bob Stokoe was given a real bombshell to his preparations for the forthcoming campaign. He responded with characteristic candour and no small amount of distaste!

On his day (and he had many), Tony Towers was probably one of the most complete midfielders I have seen in a Sunderland shirt, having watched the Lads since 1966. He could do it all: tackle, play a passing game long and short, go box-to-box for ninety minutes plus, and deliver a venomous shot. On this day in July 1975, it looked odds-on he would be leaving the club.

A number of back pages were reporting on Tony Towers' shock transfer request and Bob Stokoe's spiky response! Towers had joined Sunderland as part of the deal that took Dennis Tueart and Mickey Horswill to Maine Road in March 1974. Sunderland received in exchange £225,000 and Towers. There was a good deal of grumbling amongst our supporters about the loss of the popular duo of Tueart and Horswill. Tony Towers quickly set about proving the moaners wrong, playing eight games and scoring two goals to finish the season with at least some of us fans thinking we might just have a reasonable deal after all, with Porterfield and Kerr gelling nicely with the midfield firebrand.

I was not surprised at his early displays. I had first seen him live in our fantastic cup tie at Maine Road in 1973. He was City's best player until his late sending-off that day and scored their first goal, a trademark wicked shot from just outside the box. Towers had forced his way into the City squad in 1970 and was part of the team that won the European Cup Winners' Trophy that year. He went on to become a permanent fixture in the team for the next couple of seasons under Malcolm Allison. His penultimate game for City was in the League Cup Final defeat by Wolves in 1974, by which point he had slipped somewhat down the City pecking order.

His move to Roker Park would hopefully revitalise his career and help him take the step from the U23 England team to full international. Sunderland went into the 1974/75 season with high hopes and two more quality recruits in Bobby Moncur and Pop Robson joined Towers to try and get the job done. We played some great football at times that campaign but were also inconsistent. Our home form saw us only lose one league game all season, but we drew six, and all of our closest competitors took a point off us at home. Away from home, we lost nine games; some of these were exciting contests but nonetheless pointless. We could only win five on our travels as most teams pulled out all the stops to beat one of the division's big guns.

Towers was a dominant force in our midfield that had lost the creativity of Ian Porterfield from mid-December. The schemer had sustained serious head injuries in a car crash and would not return until the following season (and was not the same player upon his return). Porterfield and Towers only played together fourteen times in the league that season, but it was enough for most to be able to see the potential in this pairing.

Despite this loss, Towers' own form was tremendous. He played a total of forty-one league games that campaign, and having trimmed down from 13 stone to 11 stone 9 pounds, his form saw him chosen as captain of the England U23s, for whom he would win eight caps between 1972 and 1976 (often playing alongside future Sunderland midfielder Mick Buckley) and called up to the full squad (but no cap)!

It was allegedly his England ambitions that led to his transfer request on the cusp of the 1975/76 season. General footballing wisdom held the belief that you could never get selected for England as a second division player (unless your name was Dave Watson). Sunderland missed out on promotion by two points in fourth position in 1974/75. Towers expressed his extreme disappointment at this failure and despite having only been at the club just over a year, he slapped in a transfer request. Bob Stokoe had not taken this well, and with Billy Hughes "agitating" for a move, he told the press exactly what he thought. "I don't want anybody who does not want to work for me. My job is to put together a squad of players who want to play for Sunderland; there is no other way." Stokoe recommended to the board that both players should go on the transfer list.

It would be a couple of days before the full board could meet, but as far as I and most fans were concerned, both players were on their way. I look upon this period as a sliding doors moment. Had the board been able to meet straight away, who knows what might have happened? As it was, when the full board did meet, they went with Stokoe's recommendation about the recently capped Billy Hughes and made him available for transfer. Unusually, they decided against placing Towers on the list, with Chairman Keith Collings publicly declaring the board's wish that Towers stay and have a good career at Sunderland.

Both Towers and Stokoe seem to have managed themselves within this potentially explosive situation. Towers went on to play thirty-four league games that season (injury and suspension accounting for his eight games absent), scoring ten goals as Sunderland deservedly won promotion back to the First Division. Towers enjoyed a tremendous campaign, his form saw him take over the captaincy from Bob Moncur who went off to be Carlisle's player-manager in November 1975, and he also played his way into the full England squad, winning three caps at the end of this season as a Sunderland player.

Billy Hughes, like Towers, also played a role that season with seventeen league appearances and six goals, both having looked certainties for the exit door. It's a "funny old game, football".

The unpredictability of the game reminded me of a bizarre occurrence involving Tony Towers that some may remember in his first full season. I take you back to 1 March 1975, at Roker Park. West Brom were the visitors and just under 29,000 had gathered. Sunderland had played really well and had peppered the Baggies' goal, without a breakthrough. Just under an hour of virtually non-stop pressure still saw the score at 0-0. Towers made a forceful run into the box and was felled for a penalty. He picked himself up to take the kick and then a right commotion ensued as John Osborne, the West Brom goalkeeper, took his top and gloves off and handed them to full-back Gordon Nisbet, who put them on and finally took his position on the goal line. It was a surreal moment; was Nisbet some kind of freakish spot-kick saver? Was it all a ploy to put the usually ice-cool Towers off his kick? Towers eventually took the kick and smashed it against the right-hand post. To compound his miss, the usually street-smart midfielder then contrived to attempt to head the rebound, directing it over the bar with a gaggle of Sunderland players racing in! The referee awarded an indirect free kick to West Brom and Osborne went back in the goal. A bizarre experience to witness.

It turned out that Osborne had sustained an ankle injury that was not immediately apparent. He left the field a short while after the penalty to warm applause and Nisbet went back in goals to finish the game, which Sunderland eventually won 3-0.

Towers endeared himself to many of the Roker faithful with his skilful and committed performances. His nickname of "Growler" was well-earned. In an era of midfield hard-men, he rarely took a backward step. Tony Towers stayed with us for a tilt at the First Division but saw his game time restricted to twenty-five games and four goals, as suspension and injury impacted. It was a disappointment that he and Kevin Arnott did not share too many games together (six league games); I am convinced that would have been some midfield had it been given a chance to gel.

After 120 appearances and twenty-two goals, Towers left in the close season of 1977 for Birmingham City, where he stayed for three seasons before trying his hand in the USA. He never got another England cap, gaining his three caps as a Second Division player at Sunderland. Thank goodness we got those two extra seasons out of him. I can still hear the chant of "TONY, TONY TOWERS, ENGLAND" ringing out loud and proud from the Fulwell End.