Lawrie McMenemy's bizarre popularity on Tyneside and why the North East derby is more than a matter of life or death

Football Food For Thought / Frank Gregan / 23 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

Frank Gregan is a man who needs little or no excuse to have a dig at Sunderland and here he tells us why a certain Lawrie McMenemy is so popular in Newcastle and how Joe Kinnear can best go about securing a full-time job at Newcastle.

Excuse the lack of the use of knighthoods and other noble citations but the names of Alf Ramsey, Alex Ferguson, Bobby Robson, and Bill Shankly are likely to take the lion's share of any poll for the best manager of all time. It's a tough club to break into, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough are knocking on the door and World War Two veterans extol the virtues of Herbert Chapman whilst all other suggestions tend to come from way out of left field.

Unless you're a Geordie, then one name rolls off the tongue whilst putting a smile on the face and a stirring in the loins. It's not Kevin Keegan or Joe Harvey (the last Newcastle manager to win anything of substance, when Henry VIII was king) but a larger than life character that plotted the downfall of Manchester United in the FA Cup final of 1976.

It is of course Lawrie McMenemy but the Newcastle faithful are not indebted to him for his feats at Southampton, they love him for his achievements at bitter rivals Sunderland! Achievements might not be the right word, abject failure is probably a better description of his time there. McMenemy took Sunderland into the third tier of English football for the first time in their history in 1987. He actually left three weeks before they went down, rats, sinking ships and all that but he had already created the hole in the hull!

One of the play off games that sealed their fate was played at Joker (sorry Roker) Park against Gillingham. The Gillingham supporters had turned up in relatively small numbers and the Gills players were expecting a tough game which would be even harder in the face of the massive, passionate home support.

I have a friend who played in the Sunderland side and he said that the Gillingham players could not believe their eyes as they came out of the tunnel and saw the away end full to bursting point, their supporters supplemented by a hoard of Geordies who had come to see their rivals relegated to their lowest level ever!

Gillingham prevailed, Sunderland went down and Lawrie McMenemy became a hero on Tyneside, although granted, he was somewhat less than popular on Wearside. There were calls for him to be granted the freedom of Newcastle and I remember seeing a great newspaper headline in which the writer had played around with the name and turned McMenemy into Mackem Enemy!

I have used this tale to highlight how serious the rivalry is between both these clubs. It is not unique, every derby has the same prejudices and consequences. Every derby match is the one that supporters want to win, its importance is magnified beyond reason and logic. A manager can turn even his most ardent critics around with just one exemplary ninety minute performance from his team.

It is no secret that the Toon Army have not been swept off their feet by the temporary appointment of Joe Kinnear. He can win them over with one very special result and performance on Saturday but it will have to be somewhere on par with England in Germany under Sven. A four or five nil drubbing of the Mackems could well land Kinnear a more permanent contract. Odds of [14.5] are available on any other score and [70.0] on 0-3 if you believe in fairy tales!

Finally, I alluded before to the fact that Sunderland's old home, Roker Park was always referred to as Joker Park by the Toon Army much to the irritation of their near neighbours. Sunderland fans were keen that when the new stadium was named it would have a title that would not be so easy to ridicule. With great razzmatazz and in a blaze of media attention they named the new ground the Stadium of Light. What a challenge that was for the Toon Army. Can anyone think of anything brown that rhymes with light?