A big, strong centre-half, quick across the ground with a reasonable searching pass, Craddock formed one quarter of the youngest back four in the club's history in his fine debut year on Wearside during the exhilarating, though ultimately disappointing 1997/98 season. While circumstance would dictate for the next two seasons that Craddock would remain side-lined in favour of experience in Sunderlands central defence. There were exceptions and Craddock was in the side during one of Sunderlands most memorable displays at the Stadium of Light alongside his defensive partner from 1998, Darren Williams as the Black Cats impressively demolished Chelsea 4-1. Then just as in his first season, Craddock would again be thrown in at the deep end when injuries depleted the Black Cats' defensive options, and just as before, the young centre back would grab his chance. This time hed strike up a partnership with club record signing Emerson Thome to forge one of the tightest defensive units Sunderland have had. With the rock-solid Brazilian dictating the back line and Craddocks pace cleaning up where necessary, the pair possessed all the attributes required as Peter Reids men surged up the Premier League table to second mainly on the strength of their tight defence. But when that partnership was broken up due to injury, the pair would never find that kind of form again as the club went into the start of a dip. After narrowly avoiding relegation one season, the Championship beckoned the next. With Sunderland in serious financial difficulty as a result and prize assets sold off for a fraction of their worth, everyone hoped on the eve of the new season Craddock would be retained to build the club around as captain. Yet again though, Sunderland were over a barrel as an offer for the centre half came in, and unfortunately Craddock left the club. To realise just how highly regarded he was here, just look at his testimonial recently where a large section of the record-breaking team from 1999 turned out as the opposition at Wolves. Not bad for a kid who arrived from Cambridge for a mere £300,000 initial outlay.
