THEY have tried a number of different sources of inspiration this season, only to be found wanting, but Sunderland are hoping an 80-year-old will be the catalyst for a first home win of the season this weekend.

The Black Cats have branded Saturday’s home game with Hull City ‘Charlie Hurley day’ in honour of the former skipper who was voted the club’s Player of the Century back in their centenary year of 1979.

Hurley, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, will be introduced to the Stadium of Light crowd ahead of kick-off, along with his 1963-64 promotion-winning colleagues Cecil Irwin, Len Ashurst, Martin Harvey, Brian Usher, George Herd, Johnny Crossan, Stan Anderson and Jim Montgomery.

The former players will be serenaded with the traditional ‘Z Cars’ theme tune, with Sunderland also unveiling the new ‘Charlie Hurley Gates’ at the south side of the Stadium of the Light.

Hurley, who was dubbed ‘the King’, made 401 appearances for Sunderland, scoring 26 goals, and was known as a commanding defender who posed a considerable threat from set-pieces.

“Sunderland fans gave me the best years of my life, to walk out onto the pitch on Saturday and hear the roar will be unbelievable,” said Hurley, who is now based in Hertfordshire and who has not attended a Sunderland game for more than a decade.

“Fifty years after I played they are still talking about me, and I don’t know why. I can’t understand why they love me so much, I mean they love me nearly as much as I love my wife!

“It is in my blood and it will always be. I just want Sunderland to be in the Premier League all the time I am around because the fans to me are unbelievable.

“It will get to me (when he walks out onto the pitch) because I love those people. In my heart I was born a Sunderland player and it’s never ever left me – my wife is just as bad as me now!”

Having been born and raised in Cork, Hurley spent four years with Millwall before moving to Sunderland in 1957.

He spent 12 seasons at Roker Park, and while his first appearance for the Wearsiders was hardly a success – he scored an own goal in a 7-0 defeat to Blackpool – he left to join Bolton in 1969 as an all-time great.

“It won’t leave me,” said Hurley. “The relationship I had with the fans when I was up there for 12 years was fantastic, and it never left me and it never leaves them.

“Anyone mentions Sunderland and that’s it, I’m looking and I’m talking. The loyalty from the Sunderland fans over the years has been fantastic, and I loved going there.

“I may have physically left the club, but mentally I still love Sunderland. Believe me, they are still in my heart – I never left the club.

“To walk out onto that pitch on Saturday will be an amazing moment, and what the club has done is highly appreciated.”

On the pitch, Sunderland will face a Hull side boasting just 17 fit senior professionals, with Will Keane having been ruled out for the rest of the season after damaging his cruciate ligaments.

Keane has joined Abel Hernandez, Andy Robertson, Moses Odubajo, Alex Bruce and Allan McGregor on the injury list, with Adama Diomande also unavailable as he serves the last of a three-match ban.

* Jordan Pickford and Wahbi Khazri will hold a signing session at Sunderland’s official club store in the Galleries Shopping Centre, Washington, on Thursday, November 24 between 3.30-5pm.