Gaffers by Trevor Keane Read Free Book Online Page B

but the club were not to be deterred in their determination to have Hurley on the playing staff and, at the age of seventeen, his professional career did get going when he signed for Millwall, breaking into the team that same year, 1953. The irony of his breakthrough, though, was that it came at the expense of another Irishman, Gerry Bowler, who had represented Northern Ireland on three occasions.
    At that time Millwall were a Third Division team, and the season before Hurley’s debut they had finished runners-up in the League. In those days the runners-up spot did not guarantee you promotion, so Millwall had to rebuild and entered a period of change, one that benefited the young Cork man, who became a permanent fixture in the side.
    After four years with Millwall, and over 100 appearances, Sunderland, whose manager Alan Brown had been tipped off to his potential by a former Millwall manager, came calling for the then twenty-one-year-old. A fee of £18,000 was agreed with Millwall, and a prince was about to grow up and become a king.
    Sunderland at that time were undergoing a new chapter in their history. In 1957 the club had been relegated from Division One for the first time and had also been fined and their board suspended for making payments to players above the maximum agreed amount. Those events rocked English football to its core and pushed the club into a period of turmoil. Their relegation meant that after sixty-eight years in England’s top flight they were in Division Two, hardly the place for a young, ambitious centre-half who was already beginning to make a name for himself.
    Although we now know that his time with Sunderland was the making of Hurley, his first two appearances were the stuff of nightmares. A 7–0 defeat to Blackpool that included an own goal, followed by a 6–0 defeat to Burnley, would have seen many older, more experienced men crumble. But to be fair to both the player and manager who signed him, they stuck with it.
    Hurley suffered his fair share of heartbreak with Sunderland, as defeat on the last day of the season twice cost them the chance of promotion to the top flight, and it was not until 1964 that Sunderland would reclaim their place in the top tier of English football, ending a six-year absence. The previous season the club had come within one game of promotion to the First Division, requiring only a draw in their final game against promotion rivals Chelsea, who had another game left to play, to secure promotion. However, they were defeated, and Chelsea went on to win their last match and take their place in the First Division. However, there were no mistakes in 1964 when Charlie skippered the side and they finished runners-up behind Charlton Athletic, thereby winning the second promotion spot.
    That promotion-winning season was also extremely pleasing for Hurley on a personal front, as he was runner-up in the Football Writers’ Player of the Year award, just missing out to Bobby Moore. Hurley’s stature in the game was growing, and his strength at the back for Sunderland was one of the key factors in the club’s return to the top division.
    Norman Howe, a close friend of Hurleys, is the vice-president of the Sunderland Former Players Association. He remembers the promotion-winning team of 1964 as one of the greatest in Sunderland’s history: ‘They played at Roker Park in those days, and it was a fortress. They went eighteen months without losing there at one stage. The players were highly regarded up in Sunderland, but they and Charlie never let it go to their heads.
    ‘I remember they would often have their lunch in the local hotel before a game and then cross the public park to Roker Park. The fans would stroll with them. Then, once the players got there, it would be a case of, “See ya now. We’re off to get changed.” It’s all very different nowadays, of course. There was so much interaction in those days.
    ‘Charlie is a very good friend of mine, and I can tell you