A fading snapshot of the man who scored the equaliser

It was their second successive victory and the fifth altogether. Over 22,000 watched the match at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough.

George Mullen died in 1978 when David, his grandson, was only eight or nine. He'd never much talked about his football, preferred a game of bowls in the park, had failed to pass on his passion to his four children or even to young David.

A motor bike man, Dave Mullen, motor bike mad, yet all the time he longed to find out more about his grandad.

Now, thanks to a golden treasury of souvenirs kept all these years by his Aunty Nancy, he at last has an impression - a fascinating, faded snapshot - of the man who helped save the day.

Still Dave wants to learn more, however. "The lads at work look at the photograph and look at me and reckon it's not hard to see whose grandson I am," he says.

George was a Darlington lad, born in Boyne Street, played for Rise Carr Boys. The team picture - short, back and one sided - still hangs in Rise Carr workmen's club.

Like several others - Benny Potts from Leasingthorne Eden Rovers, John Taylor from Spennymoor, Joe Lamb from Willington, Stephen Freak from Shildon - he'd joined the Cup holders in the summer of 1921.

The following season they played Dulwich Hamlet, the club formed with 3/6d in 1893, in the semi-final at Fulham. The programme ("and Cottagers' Journal") is still in Aunty Nancy's envelope and worth heaven knows how much, a large and theatrical production with player profiles by The Baker's Man.

The band played The Teddy Bear's Picnic.

"You may depend upon it that today's match will be deadly serious," said the programme a little unnecessarily, adding that the Bishops were due to play two weeks later in the final of the Grimsby and District Hospital Cup.

Since Bishop Auckland is not normally included in the Grimsby district, can anyone explain why?

The final programme's missing, but there's a menu card from the victory celebration in the Kings Caf on May 3 - fillets of plaice, roast beef, roast lamb - and a card from a second celebration, three weeks later at the Kings Restaurant.

Probably it was the same place and the Bishops were simply moving up-market. More plaice, more lamb, more beef.

Thereafter they were off on a trip to the Channel Islands, dinner in The Strand en route - Bishop Auckland was an army which clearly marched on its stomach - and first class berths from Southampton.

The following season they went to Barcelona, two games against the hosts and another with Dundee, club secretary Kit Rudd offering a few "useful hints" in the tour brochure. All members of the party, said the useful hints, were advised to bring travelling bag, soap and towel, flannels and a pair of slippers.

"Players," added the brochure, "will carry their own football boots, knickers, stockings and guards."

Each meal was carefully scheduled, and taken in style: that the returning party didn't reach Darlington until 9pm on Sunday was because they'd spent three hours in York having their teas.

Then George Mullen was off on his own travels, signed for Sheffield Wednesday but missed his wife and baby and, homesick home, begged for his release.

Sheffield's sanction is there in Aunty Nancy's envelope - handwritten, master to servant, reluctant nonetheless.

He signed for Darlington - £3 a week says the still-preserved contract and another £1 if in the first team - then went to Shildon where the contract demanded he play "in an efficient manner" without decreeing who might be efficiency's judge and jury.

"The player shall not engage in any business or live in any place which the directors may deem unsuitable," it added.

For keeping to it they paid him £2 though Dave Mullen reckons that his grandad also ran in "foot races", often in his mate Smithy's name in order to upset the oddsfellows.

"It usually got them their beer money for the weekend," he says.

George worked at Stephenson's Engineering in Darlington, became a gaffer, gave a football medal to each of his four children, celebrated his golden wedding, died in 1978.

That little trove of memorabilia has now been safely returned to his grandson, serving only to whet his appetite. Still he longs to find out more...

l Northern Goalfields Revisited, the Northern League's millennium history, has been able to shed some small glimmer on George Mullen's career. We even gave the lad a copy. Others can still buy the 530 page masterwork for £8.99 from The Northern Echo's offices in Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Durham and Northallerton or by ringing here on 01325-505085. There are still some signed copies, too.

THERE is more, much more, in Aunty Nancy's magic envelope. There's Bishop Auckland v Ilford in 1939 when Jack Washington and Bob Paisley were in the Bishops' team and Frank E Franks ("himself") was on at the Eden Theatre.

There's Bishop Auckland v Spennymoor in the 1946 Durham Challenge Cup final when Lingford's Bakery had been "famous for 84 years" and the Bishops against Ushaw Moor - of all teams - in the 1950 Durham Benevolent Bowl final.

The Moor men had beaten three North Eastern League sides, held more Aged Miners Cups than a pit terrace sideboard and had lost eight of the previous 117 games.

There's Bishop Auckland v Moor Green, 1950 - the programme advertising Inside Right Health Salts, 2/3d a tin; they were Lingford's, too. There's also Crook v Romford in the 1949 Amateur Cup semi-final, the second replay programme from the epic Amateur Cup final between Bishop Auckland and Crook, Bishops against West Stanley in the 1952 Durham Challenge Cup final in which the West Stanley team included James Ramshaw, described as a "grand forager".

Foraging no longer, Jim Ramshaw is now chairman of the Federation Brewery.

FIRST time at Hartlepool United, referee Alan Butler - a senior police officer in Leicester - found himself in difficulty even before the Exeter match kicked off.

So handsome is the Victoria Ground these days that he was unable, for purposes of a background to the centre circle photograph, to decide which was the main stand.

"Which way do you want us?" he asked Hartlepool Mail photographer Frank Reid, himself a Northern League assistant ref.

"Well preferably," said Frank, "facing the camera."

STILL with the prospering Pool, our note the other day on Ken Furphy's ultra-brief sojourn at Exeter City not only used the wrong photograph but wrongly identified Hartlepool's all-time leading scorer.

As Maurice Heslop in Billingham points out, it was Kenny Johnson, not Tommy. Tommy was the physio.

The really curious incident, however - as Sherlock Holmes remarked of the dog in the night-time - is the silence over this egregious affair from Ron Hails.

We are accustomed to Hails of Hartlepool's periodic hibernations, but surely not their Patch?

Tom Purvis, happily seldom silent for long, draws attention to a letter in the Mail on Sunday. "In light of the recent revival of Middlesbrough FC, would it be fair comment that the position of Bryan Robson is not Very Tenable?"

"An amusing metathesis," suggests Tom and so, of course, it is.

EVER acquisitive, the Northern League is claiming Leeds United goalkeeper Paul Robinson, now widely tipped as the next England custodian.

Robinson, it transpires, played twice for Durham City when John Burridge did a bit of coaching there.

There's a paragraph about it in the latest League magazine. "We taught him all he knows," says City fan Jim Jennings.

The invitation (Backtrack, January 16) to name five Sunderland players who'd also appeared in a European Cup final floored almost everyone.

Even Alan Foggon made another appearance (oh come on, Arnie) while Paul Dobson nominated Stefan Schwarz - "he must have played for enough clubs on the continent to have picked up a European Cup final somewhere".

In truth, the famous five are Chris Waddle (whilst at Marseilles), Alan Kennedy (Liverpool) and Frank Gray, Ian Bowyer and John O'Hare, all from Nottingham Forest days. O'Hare, apparently, gained his gold medal for his appearance as a substitute with only ten minutes remaining.

Martin Birtle in Billingham points out that Middlesbrough-based jumps jockey Peter Niven is about to become only the sixth rider to claim 1,000 wins over fences.

Peter's on 996. Who, asks Martin, were the other five? We're up and over again on Tuesday.