Bobby Kerr (5’5”). Impossible to ignore, we all know that Bobby recovered from a twice-broken leg to lift the FA cup for the lads. A debut scorer against Man City in 1966, Stokoe’s “little general” played his last game for us against Stoke in the league cup in 1979. In between, he carved out a niche as one of our most popular players in the club’s history, in a career characterized by non-stop effort and quality crossing. He even scored a few with his head. Winding down at Blackpool (that Stokoe knew a good player) and Hartlepool, Bobby has run several pubs on Wearside, and is a regular at home games. 427 games, 67 goals.

John Harvey (5’4”). Purely because of his status as our shortest ever player, John wins his place here. That and the fact that he won the championship with us. Playing from 1889 until 1897, with a brief sojourn in Clyde in 1891-2 he was part of fearsome partnership with John Campbell. The pair spoilt it all by joining them up the road at the same time in 1897. 108 games, 17 goals.

Mick Buckley (5’5”). Came from Everton in ’78, stayed for 5 years, and scored twice on Ally McCoist’s debut at Ipswich. Neat and hard working, he’d been part of the Everton team that put us down in’77, but redeemed himself by scoring the goal that kept us up at Maine Road in ’82. His career fizzled out when he was released, moving from Hartlepool to Carlisle, and, shame of shames, the Smoggies. 135 games, 8 goals.

Stan Cummins (5’5”). A magical player with the ball at his feet. Stan was a tremendous entertainer. Largely remembered for two things – scoring four against Burnley, and falling out with the management, the second of which saw him claim a free transfer to Palace. A stinker of a game for them in the League Cup preceded his return to Roker, but he missed out on a place in the final, as he was cup-tied – as you’d expect. Went to the US to play and coach, applied several times to manage Sunderland, and kept turning up in the Black Bull in Ferryhill with unfeasibly tall American women. Now turns out for the Greyhound over-40s. 159 games, 32 goals.

Milton Nunez (5’5”). Lied about both his playing career and his height, as he was neither an international or any higher than 4’10”. Arriving in a blaze of publicity, playing half a game against Wimbledon at the SoL and half a game away to Luton in the League Cup, you’d have to have been both dedicated and of impressive ocular capacity to have spotted him. We tried, unsuccessfully, to get our money back, but the case fizzled out and we ended up paying legal costs (which has been kept very quiet). Last seen beneath a bunch of 12-year-old autograph hunters at Kingsway, Bishop Auckland. 2 half games, 0 goals.

Eric Gates (5’6”). Now irritating and entertaining in equal measure as part of Century’s “Legends” radio phone-in, Gatesy arrived as one of Mackemenemy’s bright hopes in 1985. His assessment of the manager as “Nice bloke, knows eff-all about football” proved to be correct. Fortunately for club and player, Mr Smith bought Mr Gabbiadini (5’10”, too tall, sorry) and Gatesy’s career took off again. An England cap and European trophy winner with Ipswich, he added a third division medal to his collection as our overall top scorer, including 4 against Southend and 3 against Rotherham, just ahead of Marco. Scorer of 11 headed goals a lot for a tot, he made way for Big Bad Billy Whitehurst, but won back his place for the last two years of his stay. Scored and set up Marco at Sid James Park, to the obvious annoyance of the skunks. Eventually gave up playing when at Carlisle, because it was “Too cold”, he dodged around the non-league circuit for a while before moving into punditry 218 games, 54 goals.