 He was also a good cricketer, and was named once as twelfth man for Warwickshire.He moved to Sunderland, then known as the "Bank of England club" because of their high transfer spending, for a fee of £15,000.Purdon made a spectacular start to his Sunderland career, scoring twice on debut against Cardiff City and following that up with a hat-trick (association football) against Arsenal at Highbury in his second game.