George Herd Scottish International from the 1950s coached Sunderland RCA ! ... also more links between Penrith and Scotland

So, I go away for a couple of days to Hull to see the rugby league derby between Hull and Hull KR and the links between Scotland and my first match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland come flooding in via twitter. Many thanks to Geoff Jackson (@CumbrianGeoff on twitter), Keith Stoker (@el_quesogrande), Matthew Read (@wizzer25) and Annan Athletic Football Club (@AnnanAthleticFC) for your contributions in advance of the big game between Penrith and Sunderland RCA in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round on Saturday the 6^th August.

I will start with the more tenuous links. As previously reported, Penrith  regularly play pre-season friendlies against Scottish teams close to the border. Continuing this Scottish link, last week they lost a thriller by the odd goal in seven at their Frenchfields Stadium against Queen of the South. Seven years ago the Frenchfields Stadium was formally opened when Annan Athletic provided the opposition and rather impolitely thrashed their hosts 5-1. Geoff Jackson has provided a scan of the front page of the programme of this historic match and it is shown below.

Additionally Geoff pointed me in the direction of Lewis Guy. Lewis is Penrith born and has played for 10 different English teams but has also plied his trade north of the border. Some readers will remember Lewis from his spell with St Mirren in the 2012-13 season when he played 29 times for the Buddies and scored 5 goals. He is currently playing for Annan Athletic … and he scores goals ! … see below

 

Lewis Guy celebrates scoring for Annan against Stirling in Feb 2016

Geoff has also noted a link between Sunderland RCA and Bella Caledonia. Sunderland born Stephen Halliday was a man of many clubs. He briefly appeared in the Scottish Premier League some years ago when he made 8 appearances for Motherwell. His sticker album card from that era is shown below. He is now 40 and finished his career recently playing for his local club – namely Sunderland Ryhope Community Association !

 

Penrith born Halliday in Motherwell colours

Geoff also supplied a blog entry that he posted in November 2013 when he visited Meadow Park the home of Sunderland RCA for their home league match against Durham City. I am quoting the link here http://cumbriangroundhopper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/overall-223.html and it is well worth clicking. Here Geoff provides the history of SRCA and also some interesting detail relating to their Meadow Park ground. It looks great and I am now hoping that the match on the 6^th August goes to a replay so that I visit Meadow Park myself!  

My new twitter pal Keith Stoker has come up with a really interesting link between Scotland and Sunderland RCA. The legendary Sunderland Inside Forward from the 1960s, Scottish International George Herd, now 80, was coaching at Sunderland RCA up until 2013! He is pictured below with football pals and fellow former RCA men, Neil Hixon and Gary Shields at the Sunderland RCA v Guisborough match on Thursday, 5 May 2016. George celebrated his 80th birthday the following day.

 

George Herd sporting the Sunderland RCA colours (love that tracksuit)

Lanark born George had a fantastic career doing footballing missionary work south of the border. Before signing for Sunderland in 1961 he played for Clyde for four seasons and achieved legendary status with that club too as he was the right winger in the 1958 Scottish FA Cup final when Clyde beat Hibs 1-0 in front of over 95000 fans to lift the famous old trophy. In total George played 111 times for Clyde scoring 20 goals. His tricky wing play brought him to the attention of the Scottish selectors. He won 5 Scotland caps between 1958 and 1960 scoring his only goal for his country in a 3-3 draw in Budapest against Hungary when the Scots held the Mighty Magyars. 

George Herd proud to wear the Scotland jersey

George’s Sunderland career spanned 10 seasons from 1961 to 1970. He was part of the promotion winning team in 1963-64 and a contemporary and team mate of fellow Scot, the late Jim McNab who also has strong Sunderland RCA connections (see previous post). In total George played 278 times for Sunderland scoring 47 goals.

It is becoming clear even before I have been to a single match on ‘The Road’ that the Scottish influence flows through the veins of the game in England. Interesting also to find out that some of the young Scots footballers, like George Herd and Jim McNab, who left their homeland to go south to fulfill their potential in the 50s and 60s stayed on and settled in England to contribute to development of the game after their playing days were over.