Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ian Porterfield

Its one of those trivia questions to which I've always known the answer. "Who scored the goal for Sunderland that beat Leeds in the 1973 Cup Final?". Everyone who had the remotest interest in football at the time will remember it. It was Ian Porterfield, who died of bowel cancer on Tuesday aged 61.
In 1973 Leeds United, managed by Don Revie were probably the most boring and unpopular football team in Europe. Revie made Alex Ferguson look like the personification of joy. They were also the best team by a mile. Sunderland were in the second division and all the betting was about how many Leeds would score. It was the football equivalent of Ming Campbell winning the next General Election - but of course it wasn't because Ian Porterfield enabled his team to pull off the most unlikely of victories. Whenever, I saw him interviewed, Ian Porterfield seemed a thoroughly decent man.

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