Sunderland Greats: Dennis Tueart, Wembley Hero & Club Legend

Newcastle-born Dennis Tueart’s journey to Wearside immortality began in the very heart of enemy territory, yet the postcode on his birth certificate never clouded red-and-white affections. Recruited through Sunderland’s prolific 1960s youth pipeline, Tueart arrived at Roker Park a raw striker, but it was on the flank that he would torment defences for the best part of a decade. “A right-footed left-winger” was how the player described himself, and that self-diagnosis proved devastatingly accurate: pace to burn, close control that could twist blood, and a poacher’s nose that ultimately delivered 196 senior goals.

Manager Alan Brown handed the 19-year-old his debut on a grey afternoon in 1968 against Sheffield Wednesday. Three months later, on 1 March 1969, Tueart opened his account with the winner against Stoke City. Brown, sweeping away the old guard in favour of academy graduates, fast-tracked the teenager into a side wrestling with inconsistency. Christmas of the 1968-69 campaign found Sunderland in mid-table respectability, but London excursions turned into horror shows: Geoff Hurst plundered six in an 8-0 humiliation at West Ham; Jimmy Greaves hit four in a 5-1 loss at Tottenham; Bobby Tambling repeated the dose for Chelsea in April. Four points above the drop come May, survival felt like a stay of execution.

Relegation followed a year later. Despite Tueart nailing down a starting role, the club slipped into the Second Division and hopes of an immediate return foundered amid board-room austerity and a contract dispute that saw the winger exiled to the reserves for three months after Brown rejected his wage demands.

The clouds lifted in 1971-72. Reinstated to the first XI, Tueart added end-product to enterprise, rattling off double-figure seasons every year until 1982. Full-backs were routinely roasted by his searing bursts; centre-forwards thrived on the left-footed crosses delivered by a supposedly one-footed winger.

December 1972 brought the watershed. With Brown’s rigid regime steering Sunderland towards the basement, Bob Stokoe strode into the dug-out and unleashed the handbrake. Suddenly Dennis Tueart and Billy Hughes were galloping forward with licence, and the Stadium of Light faithful dared to dream of the FA Cup. Manchester City and Arsenal were swept aside en route to Wembley, where Leeds United, the swaggering champions of England, awaited. Tueart’s three goals had already fired the fairytale; on the hallowed turf he watched Jimmy Montgomery’s legendary double save unfold from the halfway line. Norman Hunter’s whisper said it all: “It looks like it’s going to be your day, Dennis.” It was. Sunderland’s 1-0 triumph remains one of the competition’s greatest upsets.

Promotion should have been the next step, but it never materialised. Still Tueart flourished, scoring in the Cup-Winners’ Cup and attracting England recognition under Don Revie. When Manchester City courted him in March 1974, ambition tugged the first of Sunderland’s Wembley heroes away from the North-East. At Maine Road he would lift the 1976 League Cup, netting a sensational overhead kick against his hometown club Newcastle, yet for Tueart the FA Cup of 1973 remained the pinnacle.

Every FA Cup weekend revives the memories, and no montage is complete without the image of Dennis Tueart, arms aloft on the Wembley grass, the embodiment of a club legend who proved that greatness can be born anywhere, but on Wearside it is forever cherished.