Monty stays silent as he closes in on his 60th birthday

"I'm as fit as a fiddle," the great goalkeeper tells Backtrack. Alas, we shall be hearing little more from him.

Though universally remembered for his double save in the 1973 FA Cup final, Monty always claimed that he made a better stop in a Second Division match at Hull.

After working at Meadowfield sports centre, as Sunderland's director of youth and as Darlington's goalkeeping coach, the white haired wonder is now a doting grandfather, part time goalkeeping coach at Scarborough and also coaches at St Aidan's Catholic school in Sunderland.

"He is without doubt Sunderland's best post-war goalkeeper. A lot of people maintain that he kept us in the old first division single handedly," says Tom Lynn, editor of the award winning fanzine The Wearside Roar.

Monty's particular strengths, says Tom, were his reflexes and his ability at one-on-ones. His weakness, which may have cost him an England cap, was his kicking.

Born in Southwick, literally on the banks of the Wear, he made 623 first team appearances for Sunderland, had another 73 senior games at Birmingham City and though he never made the first team at Nottingham Forest, won a European Cup medal in 1980 as a sub.

"The word legend is ridiculously overused, but that's precisely what Jimmy Montgomery is," says Tom.

We spoke briefly last week, when Monty promised to ring back. He hasn't. Yesterday the great man was unavailable. Ho-hum; happy birthday.

A little premature, maybe, but when Shildon travel to Shirebrook in the FA Cup third qualifying round on Saturday, the old pot itself - one of the two, anyway - will be up for grabs.

The game features on one of those latter day road to Wembley things, having kicked off at the memorably named Stone Dominoes, in Staffordshire.

This one's TheFA.com website FA Cup Trail. "We're confident the trail's not going to go cold," says Shildon secretary Mike Armitage after last week's 5-1 thrashing of Frickley Athletic from the UniBond premier division.

Should the game be drawn, or Shildon win and get a home tie in the last qualifier, the FA Cup will return to the North-East for the first time since May 5 1973, Jim Montgomery's finest hour.

A possible final PS on all those "Cup fever" road signs which appeared in the Shildon area last week. Forty were put out, 39 came back.

Some were in what team manager Ray Gowan calls "tricky areas", but without problem. The only one which walked was from outside Woodham golf club, in Newton Aycliffe.

Ray's unsurprised. "I always knew there was something odd about golfers," he says.

Unlucky break and all that, we reported last Tuesday that 45-year-old Barry Goodwin - the goalkeeper whose most fearsome expletive is "Jeepers" - had dislocated his elbow and fractured his arm in three places whilst playing for Murton at Evenwood.

We bumped into him, steel plated and sore, at Murton v Consett on Saturday. What had he said, then?

"I said it was broken, because I knew at once that it was," said Barry.

Nothing else?

"Not even jeepers. It somehow didn't seem appropriate."

Recent references to Doghouse Cricket Club, tourers from Teesside, stirred memories for Stan Wilson, now in Sowerby, Thirsk.

We've also heard from Martin Birtle in Billingham about the Rooks, for whom his father Tom - better known with Nottinghamshire - turned out. Probably long since flown the nest, Martin supposes.

Stan's played for the Doghouse - "I felt like it was the MCC, I didn't dare show my browtings up" - but was more familiar with the Mariners, a nomadic side chiefly comprising players from Redcar and Saltburn.

When they met Doghouse for the Rankin Cup, Doghouse were overwhelming favourites. When Mariners won, Doghouse demanded a re-match.

"Mariners said they hadn't a suitable date," says Stan. "It was many years ago, but the funny thing is, they've never had a suitable date since."

Friday's column on Dickie Ord recalled his debut in Sunderland's 7-0 thrashing of Southend United, November 3 1987. It wasn't the only big event in Sunderland that night.

A mile across town at the Crowtree Leisure Centre, Newcastle lad Paul Lister - nicknamed Sonny, as in Liston - was fighting Horace Notice in a mismatch for the British heavyweight title.

The programme called him Sony. "It was as if he'd been sponsored by a Japanese television manufacturer," recalls Martin Birtle, who was at ringside with his dad.

Lister had been quoted at 20-1. "It's the equivalent of Scarborough taking on Liverpool in the FA Cup, but I don't intend to waste this once in a lifetime chance" the 27-year-old former hod carrier said beforehand.

Unfortunately, however, he failed to stand up and take Notice. Rather he'd been three times on his backside before being counted out in the third.

"The other lad nearly killed him, to be honest," says Martin.

Notice, from West Bromwich, became the first heavyweight since Henry Cooper 20 years earlier to win a Lonsdale Belt outright; Frank Bruno was among those in his corner.

"He seemed so untroubled that the first thing he did after the fight was swim a length of the Crowtree pool," says Martin, a recollection confirmed by Ray Robertson's match report.

"It was all flailing stuff. Notice only had to keep his head to retain his title," wrote Ray.

Across the Wearmouth Bridge, Eric Gates was scoring four to silence the critics of his £175,000 move from Ipswich. "Ord couldn't have had a quieter debut," wrote Frank Johnson.

Notice was last in the news after being charged with riot following a 1989 acid house party at which he was a security guard.

Sonny Lister was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice after a Newcastle night club shooting in 1995, but the prosecution dropped the case.

He married the daughter of Tyneside comedian Bobby Pattinson and is a doorman at a Newcastle bar.

...and finally

The club which plays at the Pulse Stadium (Backtrack, October 3) is Bradford City.

After a long absence from the foot of the column, Brian Shaw in Shildon returns today to seek the identity of the first sponsored competition in English professional football - played in 1969 after strong objections to sponsorship had finally been overcome. We take the money again on Friday.

Published: 07/10/2003