15th February.....Ian Porterfield was born on this day in 1946 in Dunfermline and was scorer of arguably the single most important goal in Sunderland's history. He is probably best remembered as the scorer of the only goal in the 1973 FA Cup Final when Sunderland beat Leeds United 1-0. I remember seeing it ! Less well known perhaps, is the record he set as a manager !! He was the first Premier League Manager to be sacked!
Porterfield managed Chelsea in 1992/93, the first season of the Premier League, and on December 5th 1992 Chelsea beat Spurs 2-1 at White Hart Lane to occupy fourth place in the table. They were looking like surprise title contenders – but then things changed!
They didn’t manage a win in their next 11 League outings, dropping to mid-table and on Monday 15th February – two days after Aston Villa had beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in their 29th League outing of the season, Ian Porterfield received his marching orders and was replaced by a former Stamford Bridge favourite, David Webb. But he had set that record that will be his for ever – the first Premier League manager to be sacked!
Actually, christened John – presumably changing to Ian as it scanned better in songs!! – he grew up in Lochgelly, and played junior football for Cowdenbeath Royals, Mary Colliery Juveniles, Lochgelly Albert, and Lochore Welfare, having trials with Rangers and Hearts.
He joined Leeds as an apprentice but got homesick and played a game while on trial at Cowdenbeath before he signed for Raith Rovers in 1964. Three years, 115 games, and 17 goals later, Raith received their highest transfer fee when we paid them £38,000 plus another £5,000 after twenty appearances. His first season on Wearside, 1967-68, brought only nine further appearances after his December debut at home to the mags that we drew 3-3, only a couple of days after he arrived.
1968-’69 saw another 31 goals, as the club began to see what a "magic wand" he had for a left foot. Over the following three seasons, he established himself in the side and was an ever-present in the club's famous FA Cup run, managing a total of 50 games in all competitions. He was having his best scoring season for the club with six strikes. Of course, the last of those came just after half past three on May 5th, when he volleyed home with his “wrong” foot, to send Wearside into paroxysms of delight and Leeds up the Wembley steps for their runner-up medals.
There were obvious calls for a Scotland call-up, but that never happened, probably because the club was a second division outfit and there were a lot of top-class Scottish midfielders at that time.
In December 1974, Ian was instrumental in the club's 4-1 win over Portsmouth, as it chased promotion but the next day he was involved in a car crash and suffered serious head injuries. The club's form suffered without him, and despite his return to training much earlier than expected, we finished fourth – and there were no play-offs.
He was back with 24 games the following campaign, helping his club to the top spot and promotion, but it’s fair to say he was never quite the same player as before the accident and he hadn’t featured in the top flight before a loan spell at Reading in November 1976, and left the club in the summer of 1977 without having played another game.
His Sunderland record of 254 games, bringing 17 goals, will always be remembered for the 1973 Cup win, and he went on to play over a hundred times for Sheffield Wednesday under Jack Charlton, taking on some coaching duties towards the end of his stay, before becoming manager at Rotherham in 1979. Following the club becoming Division Three champions in 1981, Ian took over at Sheffield Utd, taking them out of Division Four at the first attempt, and later out of the Third. Next he had a spell at Reading and followed Alex Ferguson into the hot seat at Aberdeen before being in charge at Chelsea when we knocked them out of the FA Cup in ’92.
Porterfield was sacked in 1993, making him the first Premier League manager to get the boot, and that was his last manager’s job in British football, He moved into international management, firstly with Zambia in the wake of an air crash that had taken the lives of several of their top players, and got them to second place in the African Cup of Nations.
After that came Zimbabwe, before a brief return to the UK to assist his old mate Colin Todd at Bolton. Back abroad only a few months later, he managed Oman, and Trinidad and Tobago, whom he took to Caribbean Cup triumph in 2001, before a spell out of the game.
In 2003 he returned to club management at Kasame Atante Kotoko in Ghana, for a short while, then with Busan I’Park in South Korea for three years, where he won their FA Cup.
After his return to the international scene with Armenia in 2006, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and sadly passed away on September 11th 2007.
We don’t suppose there’s another player in Sunderland’s history who is remembered for one particular goal, and quite rightly so, as Ian played a massive part in making the Club's most famous day as memorable as it is.
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