Few players are held in such esteem as Magic Allan Johnston is around these parts of the North East, Englands hotbed of football. He arrived at the club late in the ill-fated 1997 season where he scored his first goal a stunning strike in the final league match at Roker Park, and it would be the first of many classy finishes from a two-footed winger with the ability to turn a defence inside out. An entertainer with an array of tricks and skills to get him out of the tightest spots, he also possessed an accurate curling shot, which many a time got the crowd to its feet. Upon the arrival of another right winger, Nicky Summerbee, Johnston made the permanent switch to the left flank. Operating from there, he and Michael Gray linked up for two seasons memorably as the pair tore gaping holes in opponents defences, turning them one way and then the other. With Johnston ahead of him, Gray came of age and won England recognition at the nation's Achilles Heel, left back. Johnston too received call ups for Scotland, but it was in red and white that the combination were truly exhilarating to watch; Grays young legs never missing the opportunity to get forward or bomb on ahead of Johnston, ready for another killer pass. It was only a shame Johnstons contract disputes put pay to all of that before Sunderland had the chance to unleash the pair of them on an unsuspecting Premier League. Despite that, the memories of his goals curled in from outside the box or him tricking a defender to the point of bewilderment remain quite simply magic.
