Colin Suggett was a star in the making, emerging from Sunderland’s prolific youth system to embody the best of North East football and the club in the 1960s.
I first saw him play in 1966 as our youth team battled to the FA Youth Cup final. Over 15,000 fans filled Roker Park for the home leg on 29th April 1966, where Sunderland beat Arsenal 2 - 1. Suggett made a real impact that night, and though we lost the second leg 4 - 1, the die was cast. Sunderland had bright young stars, and Colin Suggett was among them.
Several players from that team had notable Sunderland careers: Derek Forster, Brian Chambers, Colin Todd, Billy Hughes, Bobby Kerr, Malcolm Moore, and Suggett.
Suggett was a prodigious schoolboy athlete, excelling at county-level basketball, long jump, 220-yard dash, and relays. He was capped for England Schoolboys alongside Forster and played in the Chester-le-Street Boys’ team that reached the 1964 English Schools’ Trophy final, winning the first leg at Roker Park before 21,726 fans but losing 4 - 3 on aggregate. Colin Todd and Howard Kendall were also in that side.
Alan Brown, during his first spell as Sunderland manager, built a highly successful scouting network, particularly in Scotland and Northern England in the 1960s. Sunderland were the destination for aspiring players, and Brown gave chances to those he deemed good enough, regardless of age. He worked with England Youth manager George Curtis as his assistant and youth coach Bill Scott, while Charlie Ferguson and Tom Rutherford led the scouting team.
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Suggett’s first year as an apprentice in 1964-65 saw the youth team reach the FA Youth Cup semi-finals. Bill Scott, assisted by Brian Clough, coached a squad including John O’Hare - whom Clough later signed three times - Jimmy Shoulder, Todd, Hughes, Kerr, and Forster.
The next season, 1965-66, the youth team reached the final, losing to Arsenal, with Suggett scoring five goals en route. In 1966-67, Sunderland went one better, winning the FA Youth Cup. Suggett, the top scorer and captain, led the team to victories over Newcastle and Manchester United, securing a 2 - 0 aggregate win over Birmingham City. I was among the 11,000 who saw us beat Manchester United’s fancied youngsters and the 15,266 at Roker Park for the 1 - 0 victory over Birmingham. Those games, and players like Suggett, Todd, Forster, Hughes, Chambers, Moore, and a young Dennis Tueart, remain unforgettable. A clever forward, possibly Irish, named Albert Brown scored in the final but never impacted the first team.
On 18th March 1967, Colin Suggett debuted for Sunderland at Stoke, one of three eighteen-year-olds in the side alongside Todd and Hughes. He played five games that season, scoring one goal.
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That close season, John O’Hare was sold to Derby County for £22,000, joining his former youth coach Brian Clough. Some felt this was a paltry fee, given O’Hare’s later success - thirteen Scotland caps and a League title. Perhaps Alan Brown believed Suggett’s potential made O’Hare expendable.
Over the next two seasons, 1967-68 and 1968-69, Suggett played eighty-three games, topping the goal charts both years with twenty-four goals. We finished 15th and 17th in the First Division.
Jim Baxter’s disruptive influence had left, and young talents like Suggett, Todd, Hughes, Kerr, Richie Pitt, and Tueart joined the first team alongside the gifted Scot Ian Porterfield. With Jimmy Montgomery at his peak and experienced players like Len Ashurst, Martin Harvey, George Herd, George Mulhall, and Colin Todd to rely on, the future felt bright.
Weeks after the 1968-69 season, this optimism unravelled. George Hurley, Mulhall, and Ralph Brand received free transfers, Herd retired, and Cecil Irwin was reportedly heading to Carlisle for £8,000. Then came the Suggett bombshell.
Local journalist Len Hetherington broke the news on 26th June 1969 that West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Ashman had secured a near-£100,000 deal late on the 25th at Suggett’s home in Washington. Alan Brown said, “When you get an offer of this size for a player, it has to be considered.” Hetherington predicted this was “the prelude to a long-overdue effort by the club to move into the market themselves.”
It’s not a stretch to see parallels with 2025, balancing the sale of young stars like Jobe Bellingham with reinvestment to retain talent. The proof of the pudding, I thought after calming down about Suggett’s sale, would be in the eating.
Colin Symm arrived on a free from Sheffield Wednesday, and Joe Baker, a once-prolific England striker, joined from Nottingham Forest for £30,000. Youngsters Mick McGiven, Bobby Park, John Lathan, and John Tones debuted in 1969-70, but relegation followed. In 1971, Brian Clough returned to sign Colin Todd for £170,000. Dave Watson and Dick Malone, bought for £130,000 in late 1970, gave sterling service, but no signings in 1971-72 and Bob Stokoe’s bargain-basement buys in 1972-73 suggest Hetherington’s optimism about market investment was misplaced. The £270,000 from Suggett and Todd’s sales, against £160,000 spent on Watson, Malone, and Baker, didn’t fuel a spending spree.
Suggett rubbed salt in the wound by scoring four minutes into his return to Roker Park with West Brom in a 2 - 2 draw in September 1969. He served West Brom well, feeding strikers Jeff Astle and Tony Brown, before a £75,000 move to Norwich City in February 1973. There, he excelled in midfield, earning Player of the Season in 1975 as Norwich won promotion.
In August 1978, he joined Newcastle United for £65,000, playing twenty-four games before an ankle injury ended his career. He later coached and scouted, notably for Newcastle and Ipswich.
I saw most of Suggett’s ninety-three Sunderland appearances - twenty-five goals, all in the First Division, from March 1967 to June 1969. His incredible five-to-ten-yard burst of pace left defenders behind. A brave finisher in the box, he was strong on the ball and dogged in hassling defenders - what we now call pressing. His natural passing and knack for creating goals from nothing made him a complete young talent.
I’m glad I saw him come through at Sunderland, especially in those FA Youth Cup adventures. To this day, I believe selling him was a mistake.