Local lad Corner couldn’t have dreamt that he’d be walking out at a Wembley Final six months later when he made his debut in a 3-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest in September 1984. However, with Shaun Elliott suspended for the Milk Cup final, Corner found himself thrust into the starting line-up. Unfortunately, during the first half of the game the game he also found himself being robbed of the ball as he tried to run it out over the by-line, and the rest is history. Corner had the honour of partnering Saddington on the latter’s debut at Barnsley, meaning that we had two ginger players in our defence. Unsurprisingly we lost 1-0.

Our most recent ginger player, Lumsdon was part of the ‘never quite gonna make it at the top are they?’ reserve team midfield that also contained Paul Thirlwell, Tommy Butler and Neil Wainwright. After overcoming his desperate disadvantages of birth (i.e.-being born in Newcastle.) Lumsdon hailed as a ‘super kid’ after making his debut at Wolves in the 1997/98 season, but never lived up to that billing. While always looking a useful player at reserve level he never got much of a chance in the first team and eventually left to join Barnsley after initially going there on loan.

Although not truly ginger, there was more than a hint of orange in the fatWelshman's barnet. More than there was a hint of talent in his body, anyhow. Hall began his Sunderland career by playing in a defeat at Derby and soon afterwards he was red carded at Leicester for sneezing too close to a young Emile Heskey. Hall went on to live up to the standard of most of our ginger players over the next season and a half to cement his place in a variety of derogatory Sunderland XI's.

The most highly achieving ginger player at the club in living memory, Mickey Horswill made his debut in a 3-1 win over Preston in April 1972. A little over a year later he was playing in the FA cup final aged just 20. Up against fellow ginger, Scottish short arse Billy Bremner, Horswill helped Sunderland lift the cup for the first time in 36 years. A year later he left the club for Manchester City, but didn’t really made it there and he ended up doing the rounds with Plymouth and Hull. He still has the same haircut that he had back then, if not as much hair.

Lynch failed to make an impact at the club mainly because he was utter bollocks. He arrived from Irish side Limerick in 1988 aged 24 and made his first team debut in a 1-1 draw at Chelsea. However with Denis Smith setting his sights on the top flight, Lynch found his prospects limited and only made four more appearances before being shipped off to Shrewsbury. He became something of a stalwart there, which perhaps summed up his abilities.

Poor old Ian Wallace. Shortarsed and ginger. Not any good either. Not in a Sunderland shirt anyway. He arrived at Roker Park from amusingly named French club Brest. Unfortunately the diminutive Scot played like a tit. One of his six goals in 40 appearances came in the league at Norwich in a dress rehearsal for the Milk Cup final. However after taking semi-final hero Colin West’s place at Wembley he failed to deliver. After a couple of second-rate seasons he moved on to Portugal and then Australia, where he moved into management.