Born in the Durham mining village of Horden, Stan Anderson didn’t go
far from home in a playing career that spanned more than 500 games. He
was a midfield player with Sunderland, Newcastle United and
Middlesbrough, the north east’s big three. And he was the only player to
captain them all. Good enough to win two England caps and be a member
of the England squad for the 1962 World Cup finals in Chile, Stan played
in the same Sunderland team as Len Shackleton, another star to turn out
for Newcastle and Sunderland, Brian Clough and Ron Revie, two men who
made an indelible mark on football management. Stan chose that route,
too, replacing another Sunderland legend, Raich Carter, as manager of
Middlesbrough in April 1966 before he, too, was succeeded by another
illustrious son of the north east in Jack Charlton. Stan then moved
further afield, spending a year Greek football, managing AEK Athens,
before returning briefly to Queens Park Rangers and then back north to
Doncaster. He stayed for three years before joining Bolton Wanderers,
giving up management in 1981 to care for his wife Marjorie. The book is
full of fascinating stories of an era when players still suffered under
a maximum wage and a feudal system that tied them to their clubs. Stan
tells how Sunderland twice tried to stop him collecting what he was due.
Stan Anderson is the only man to have captained Sunderland, Newcastle
and Middlesbrough and has a unique insight into north eastern football.
He played with and against many of the greats of the 1950s and 1960s and
was a member of the England squad for the 1962 World Cup.
Mark
Metcalf is a Yorkshire-based writer and life-long fan of Sunderland AFC.
He ran Sunderland Fans Against Racism. He was also author of 'Charlie
Hurley – the greatest centre-half the world has ever seen'.
