The season got off to a brilliant start with a 3 v 1 win at Villa Park. The main turning point in the game was the substitution of Peter Withe. The aerial threat diminished West, McCoist and nick Pickering helped themselves. The result was even more impressive considering that Villa were European champions, having disposed of Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, just 3 months earlier.

Some interesting characters came to the club, including the flamboyant Frank Worthington, and the experienced Leighton James and Jimmy Nicholl (who had been on loan to us). Pre seasons aw the departure of Barry siddall, Tom Ritchie and Alan Brown.

Sunderland at least progressed, league position wise, and would end the campaign 15th with 50 points. Incredibly this was our best season since 1967/68, when we also finished 15th.But if statistically the season showed enhancement, the attendances indicated that people were now voting with their feet. The average crowd of 17,353 was the lowest since 1971/72. Following the Villa victory, things were "iffy" to say the least. A draw, a win and 4 defeats left us struggling right from the off.

One of the defeats was a horror story and for those who witnessed the 0 v 8 drubbing by Watford at Vicarage Road, it was a long journey back. 25 September 1983 was the day when many Sunderland fans learnt a lot about "allotments" as they left the ground at half time and sat by the back of the end watching and talking with the "plant growers of the Town". It was truly horrible. We did recover some of our face by demolishing traditional bogey team Norwich City next game at Roker Park, but of course it was a false dawn.

By this time the Roker End was considered unsafe, structural faults had been located in June 1982 and work would begin on demolishing part of it. The ground would never be the same again, and in truth its demise ran parallel to the demise of the club and its fortunes. Very soon we would hit rock bottom.

A run of 10 games without a win was halted on 18 December with a 3 v 0 victory over Arsenal on Wearside. The game remembered for the bitterly cold conditions, The Arsenals awful away strip and a brilliant Gary Rowell hat trick.

January to March is normally a pretty dodgy time for Sunderland AFC and its followers but this season bucked the trend. In this period we played 11 games and lost only once, at Southampton. It didn’t last however, and any thoughts of a consistent end to the season were banished with the last 10 games. Only 1 victory followed, albeit a brilliant 1 v 0 victory at Highbury, where Colin West scored.

In the end the league campaign petered out with a tame 1 v 1 Roker draw with West Bromwich Albion. The end of another stunningly average campaign.

The Football League Cup had provided us with a brief highlight, and a replay with Wolverhampton Wanderers. After a 1 v 1 draw at Molineux we thrashed the Midlanders 5 v 0 with Gordon Chisholm in particularly fine form that night, scoring twice. The competition ended in defeat by Norwich.

The FA cup had provided little cheer, with defeat at Maine Road in a third round replay.