Top 50 North defenders

Jul 10 2011 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

AND now to the real heroes. Strikers deliver you goals, midfielders brush the game with ingenuity that lifts supporters off their feet but defenders are leaders of men. And without exception, you’d take any one of these 50 into the trenches with you.

Because when the going got tough, invariably this lot rolled up their sleeves, smashed into a tackle and turned things around.

Can you quibble with the placing of some of them? Perhaps. Jonathan Woodgate, for example, barely completed a half century of games in the region but the sheer quality of his performances earns him such an elevated placing.

But for the most part I’ve tried to crowbar the great defensive units of each of our big three into the equation. They would be the Sunderland defence that Charlie Hurley led, the Newcastle back four that Bob Moncur drove on and Willie Maddren’s Boro battlers of the mid-seventies.

Such were there abilities as a collective, it was difficult to assess their worth as individuals, but I’ve had a crack anyway.

Five of the Entertainers Era stoppers are included too, despite the widely held belief that Kevin Keegan’s side couldn’t defend for toffee. But then how do you quantify the surge of adrenaline felt whenever Phillipe Albert got the ball?

50: Craig Liddle (Darlington 98-05, 271)

You know you’ve arrived when the local brewery names a mild after you. And that’s just what happened when Liddle – arguably the Quakers’ greatest ever servant – made his 300th appearance for the club.

I couldn’t tell you whether ‘Liddle’s Best’ was a decent tipple but the Chester-le-Street stopper was simply superb over seven cracking years at the club.

A popular skipper who led by example on and off the pitch, he’s now doing a sterling job in the club’s youth programme.

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