Sunderland A.F.C.
Bringing Jim Baxter to Sunderland was Ian McColl’s biggest mistake. Wonderful player though he was, Baxter’s arrival split the dressing room down the middle.
The one thing I was nearly certain of was that Jim Baxter was receiving an illegal payment outside of his contract. It could be the only explanation for the huge pile of cash on Ian McColl’s desk. I decided I had to keep what I had witnessed secret.
The police estimated that nearly 100,000 people were in and around the ground. Two people were killed as the huge metal exit gates at the Roker End were forced open through crowd pressure.
Perhaps not surprisingly given all that had gone on in the run up to the game, the Milk Cup Final on Sunday 24 March 1985 was an abject experience for me. The wonderfully exhilarating journey to reach the Twin Towers had felt like that never-ending dash for the winning post in the Grand National at Aintree. It pains me greatly that as a club we failed to give them a day to remember in any way shape or form.
The problems just seemed to keep on coming.