Len: £75,000 would have saved us from relegation

Mar 29 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

“It was a shame because John was a terrific goalscorer and had we had him the next season, I believe he would have made the difference between us staying up and going down – we might even have won the cup!

“We were a picking away from being a good team.

“We also lost our playmaker Mark Proctor for four months through injury that season and I think if we’d had Aldridge and Proctor playing for us, I’m sure we would have stayed up.”

Ashurst’s 14-month spell as manager ended in failure when he was sacked at the end of the 1984-85 relegation season but older Sunderland fans will remember him more as a stalwart defender with more than a decade’s service on Wearside.

Ashurst is the club’s record outfield appearance-maker, playing 458 times between 1958 and 1970.

He said: “I’ve seen the highs and the lows at Sunderland.

“I had a terrific 12 years there as a player, but obviously my time as manager was not so successful, even though we got to a cup final!

“I knew I would be out at the end of the season.

“If you lose at Wembley and get relegated, clearly there will be changes made.

“We had to either win the cup or stay up, if I was going to be able to stay on.

“But I regard it as an honour to have spent so long at Sunderland, and the fact that I was sacked as manager certainly hasn’t affected the way I feel about the club.

“It was a privilege to play for Sunderland and to have had the chance to manage there.”

Ashurst’s book also covers his spells as manager of Hartlepool, Gillingham, Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff, as well as his time as a coach in the Middle East, in charge of the Kuwait and then Qatar national sides.

l Left Back in Time is published by Know The Score Books (ISBN 978-1-84818-512-8) priced £17.99 (hardback) and is available at all leading stockists, or online at www.knowthescorebooks.com or www.lenashurst.com