On This Day (28 January 1981): Knighton's purchases come at a cost after initial customer satisfaction!
01/28/2025 01:00 AM
Sunderland manager Ken Knighton was making a decent fist of survival, but there was a headstrong personality pulling the strings in the background…
Division One new boys Sunderland got off to a flyer in 1980-81, only for the rigours of top-flight football to start taking their toll as campaign went on. Ken Knighton's side did always manage to compete in games still but were sliding down the table come the new year and speculation regarding his future was starting to grow – with some of the doubts even coming from inside the club itself.
While the squad was busy acclimatising on the pitch, chairman Tom Cowie (he did not become OBE until 1982 and was knighted a decade later) was keen to stamp his authority on things, too. Having taken over ahead of the season he felt that his predecessors had been too 'nice' and that Roker needed to be shook up a bit, meaning that his leadership style was often confrontational and abrupt, but the belligerent atmosphere this created was not necessarily conducive to a group trying to stick together and dig out results, and only served to increase tensions further.
Knighton himself was still fairly new to his role, but despite building up plenty of credit with the fanbase, his ultimate boss Cowie, a self-confessed sore loser, struggled to accept the number of defeats being experienced and wasn't keen to give him as much slack. He did allow the manager to spend some money in an attempt to speed the improvement process up though, and so it was that having joined from Nottingham Forest earlier in January, Ian Bowyer made his debut in a floodlit Wednesday night fixture against Manchester United.
The game had originally been due to take place on the 17th and had been postponed due to the icy conditions being suffered across several parts of the county, with the hierarchy moving quickly to rearrange the match. Once it did kick-off at 19:30 on the 28th, the clash was played at a ferocious pace, and the hosts quickly got on the front foot.
Gordon Chisholm, enjoying a spell in a more attacking role, gave the Lads the lead when he calmly chested down a Joe Bolton cross and cracked a low shot past Gary Bailey midway through the first half. Sunderland then had the chance to extend their advantage when Jimmy Nicholl, who at the end of the calendar year would move to Wearside on loan, handled in the area moments before the break; the effort was saved by Bailey, however, when John Hawley placed it too close to the goalkeeper.
Things got heated in the second half with neither side willing to back down, and the points were only wrapped up at the very end when Bailey gave away a further spot kick as he hauled down Bolton late on. With Hawley having been replaced by substitute Alan Brown, the penalty duties were passed over to a familiar taker; Gary Rowell making no mistake as he put the seal on an eye-catching victory. The big-name guests were comfortably placed in the top half of the standings beforehand, and had created plenty of openings themselves, yet they were unable to break down a hard-working Sunderland determined not to become Division One also rans and who fully deserved the win.
Chris Turner had looked sharp and both Steve Whitworth and Bolton cleared attempts off the line when the Black Cats came under pressure, while Bowyer provided an encouraging amount of poise in the middle.
It was an evening with many positives then, although it was not a complete success for Knighton sadly, who had to console a distressed Hawley when bringing him off and very visibly showed him plenty of appreciation, and then had several possible injury problems to deal with at full time also. Both Rowell and Rob Hindmarsh came into the changing rooms nursing ankle problems following a bruising encounter, while Turner was rushed off to hospital for an X-ray on a badly swollen face – he had collided Mickey Thomas in the opening exchanges but then insisted on playing through the pain.
The headaches only enforced the gaffer's resolve to bring in reinforcements, as at the same time The Red Devils were being taken care of Bristol City's Tom Ritchie was appearing in what was expected to be his final appearance for the club having agreed in principle to a switch north. After being at Ashton Gate for 12 years, he signed off with a brace past former Sunderland stopper Trevor Swinburne as The Robins beat Carlisle United in an FA Cup replay, before then setting off to meet Knighton and put the final touches to the deal. The transfer had been a long time coming and the manager was keen to make sure it would finally done – so much so that he altered his arrangements for the Thursday morning and elected not to travel with the squad down to Hampshire ahead of the upcoming Southampton game.
The move was duly concluded for a reported £200,000, which added to the £250,000 said to have been splashed out on Bowyer represented a fair investment by the board, particularly given that one of the reasons the United date was scheduled for so soon after the initial call off was due to cash flow, as admitted by Knighton himself. Wanting to avoid players losing their sharpness or getting stuck in a fixture pile up were only two of the considerations; in an era when fans were more likely to pay on the gate as opposed to buying a season ticket up front, more attention had to be given to how much was coming in and out of the coffers each month.
The funds that were held certainly had to be managed sensibly, but when a parsimonious environment was exacerbated by that combative temperament of Cowie there was bound to be strain. Knighton should have encouraged and invigorated – beating the men from Old Trafford built upon a 3-0 success over Norwich before that, and now he had two new arrivals to bed in, and yet further woes followed instead; Ritchie endured an infamous goal drought and Bowyer struggled to build on his impressive debut before eventually going back to Forest in a cut-price deal that would raise many questions, but that was down the line.
The owner was a hugely successful business operator who brought great employment and prestige to the area, but when it came to football, he was often one for making a bold gesture rather than playing a longer game. Cowie used the lack of immediate impact made by the recently recruited duo as a stick to beat his incumbent manager with, and while never in the relegation zone under Knighton's watch, patience would run out and within a couple of months there was to be the first managerial change of his reign.
Wednesday 28 January 1981
Football League Division One
Sunderland 2 (Chisholm 24', Rowell (pen) 89')
Manchester United 0
Sunderland: Turner; Whitworth, Hindmarch, Elliott, Bolton; Rowell, Arnott, Bowyer, Chisholm, Cummins; Hawley (Brown 71').
Roker Park, attendance 31,910
