118 John Moore

Position : Forward

Played : 1987-88 (on loan from Sunderland)

Appearances : 10

Goals : 2

Realising that Dean Walling wasn’t quite up to it, Eddie Gray started bringing in strikers on loan starting with burly John from Sunderland. He had been with them since 1984 and made sporadic appearances in the first team but we were the fourth club to take him on loan.



He made an impressive start with a well-taken goal on his debut away at Peterborough and generally looked a useful target man (although Les Barlow’s instant judgement that he could be another Reg Jenkins was amusing rather than accurate). We couldn’t afford to sign him permanently so he went back to Roker Park after 10 games.



Eddie Gray made him one of his first signings when he went to Hull but it was a disaster, John scoring only once and attracting derision (and insinuations about his drinking) from the crowd. He only made 14 appearances plus 5 goalless games on loan at Sheffield United before being sold to FC Utrecht in 1989. He achieved his best stats in the season he spent with them scoring 8 in 30 appearances (his tally for Dale was actually his best in English football). The following year he returned to England with Shrewsbury but only played 8 games scoring once. After a single appearance for Crewe , his last League club was Scarborough for whom he scored once in 7 appearances in 1991-2. He then moved to Bishop Auckland before a 10 year stint in Hong Kong football including playing for the national side. He returned to England aged 36 for a brief spell with Durham City in 2002-03.