In the back of my mind, I was sure we once lost at home to 9 men. I was also fairly sure it was 1-2 to Sunderland in the 70s. Because I'm odd I decided to go through the league tables, year by year until I saw Burnley 1 Sunderland 2 on 23 September 1978. That had to be it and I then came across this on something called the interweb, written by a Sunderland fan (this is an excerpt):

However, what I am seeking to cover and personally reminisce about today is a game from the gritty, non-politically correct late 1970’s, when two proper Northern teams played a solidly memorable game. I refer to Burnley vs. Sunderland on 23 September 1978 - extra needle was present in the game because former Clarets manager Jimmy Adamson was in charge at Roker Park. The superb – at least for SAFC nerds – www.thestatcat.co.uk helped me with the details of the game.

What is great about any live game is that one can see history being made and in the 70’s cameras at a game were a rarity, unless your team happened to be on “Match of the Day”. No cameras then for that Second Division Turf Moor clash.

The first half was pretty even, but the referee was reaching for his yellow card too often for my liking. Just after the half hour mark Shaun Elliott joined full-backs Mick Henderson and Joe Bolton in that rather picky official’s notebook. Then disaster struck; both Henderson and Bolton got their marching orders in the minutes up to the break. I was counting the players to make sure I had seen this actually happen and yes, we were down to 9 men. Even coach Ken Knighton was booked for protesting those decisions.

I do not know what manager Adamson said in the dressing room, but in the second half we just kept the ball away from our defence, and the now legendary goal scorer Gary Rowell netted twice, the second being a penalty kick. There was a rather nervy ending when Burnley pulled one back on 75 minutes, but this was the first time ever a team had won with 9 against 11, starting at 0-0.

Anyone go on?