Younger fans may struggle to believe the former Newcastle stopper graced Sunderland with his presence before any move to the Mags was ever touted, but its true. He never pulled on a Sunderland shirt at the Stadium of Light however, this was back in the early days of Peter Reid's reign as manager. Sunderland had flown up the league into first place in mid-December 95, but had stuttered on the road before the Christmas fixture list had been wiped out by heavy snow. That allowed a fresh Sunderland team to shock title chasing Manchester United in the FA Cup, but after the replay defeat by the Red Devils Sunderland faced a horrendous fixture backlog. To cope with it, Reid called upon 19 year old Irish keeper Shay Given from the Champions, Blackburn Rovers. The gamble of loaning Given paid dividends during an exciting three month spell: Peter Reid was certainly cheered up as his song hit the charts, his team hit top gear; promotion rivals were swept aside, including Derby on a 20 game unbeaten run. But Sunderland had started their own string of games, going 9 matches with consecutive wins, a feat not managed for almost a century. But watching the never-say-die Shay Given as Sunderlands last unbeatable man on the line it wasnt hard to see why. His heroics during that brief spell didnt go unnoticed, and though Sunderland would try to sign him for a near British record for a keeper it was Newcastle who would snap him up instead on a free.
