Come on, the only thing you don’t know about Bally is that he was 35 years and 15 days old when he replaced Eric Roy to ensure the 3-1 win at Watford in November 1999. Well, you do now. Bally still reads ALS and is far too hard for us to say anything else, except we love him xx.

33 when he arrived, Billy Grimshaw had made his name at Cardiff, and he went straight into the side at the end of 1923. After a couple of seasons, Jack Prior, Bob Kelly and finally Allwyn Wilks kept him out of the side. He retired from playing at the end of the 1926-27 season, having been 36 years and 309 days old when he last played, in a 1-3 loss at Villa.

Tommy Urwin was 39 years and 76 days old in his final appearance when we drew 1-1 at Preston in April 1935, making him our oldest ever player. Tommy, from Haswell, was already 33 when he signed from the Mags, having joined them from the Boro, 6 goals in 55 games, and four England caps.

Pop was born in the shadow of Roker Park, but made his name up the road before joining West Ham, Sunderland, West Ham, Sunderland, Carlisle, Chelsea and Sunderland. He even came back twice more on the coaching staff – must like the place. Our oldest scorer – on his last appearance, he got a goal in the win at Leicester in May 1984 aged 38 years and 182 days. 174 games, 67 goals.

Was 37 years and 57 days old when he made his debut – Sunderland’s oldest debutant – amid rumours that Mick Mc had only signed him to prevent him tearing our defence to shreds, as he’d done regularly over the years for Leeds, West Ham and others. Used as a sub four times, Brian (or Deano, as we liked to call him) was 21 days older on his last game – ironically enough at West Ham, as we equalled our record of 13 away wins in a season, and clinched the Championship in April 2005 – before nipping off to play alongside Dwight Yorke in Australia. Will probably sign for Leeds soon.

Too little, too late, we’d given Chris trials when he was aged 14 and again at 19, but the Mags nipped in and signed him. After Spurs, Marseilles, Sheff Wed, Falkirk and Bradford, he was 36 when he eventually arrived at his boyhood heroes. Despite having a hand in every goal we scored during the rest of the season, Chris ended his Sunderland spell with relegation at Wimbledon on May 11th 1997, aged 36 years and 150 days. 7 games, 1 goal, and 62 England caps to go with various domestic and European trophies. Bah – see what he missed by not joining us sooner.

Played his last game aged 37 years and 72 days, so if he could have only played midfield, he’d have snuck in ahead of Bally, but he still managed a couple of seasons at Huddersfield after he left.