Any day you win, score six goals, and beat Manchester United has to be seen as a good day out for a Sunderland AFC team, and this is exactly what they did on this day in 1926.
In the fantastic book The Absolute Record written by Rob Mason, Mike Gibson, and Barry Jackson, the season was labelled as a ‘Goal Feast’ as Sunderland crushed many sides by huge margins during this season as they went on to finish third.
Despite the attacking exploits that Robert Kyle’s team displayed in this game, newspaper
articles were not blown away by his Sunderland side. One report lamented that Sunderland ‘did nothing much of note’ during the entire first half whilst also labelling the game ‘vigorous with too much force used’ throughout the game. In addition, another journalist said he was ‘not fooled’ by the Sunderland win in a game where they played ‘little good football’ throughout. Kyle’s team appeared to play an industrious style of football which suited our centre-forward Dave Halliday more than it may have suited our more talented footballers such as Bob Kelly, who was said to be ‘completely unsuited to this type of football’. Industrious or not, the team brought a huge second-half performance where the role of Billy Clunas was mentioned as an enormous turning point in the game. Clunas’ forceful efforts put Sunderland on the front foot in the second half, and it wasn’t long before the Manchester United rearguard crumbled under the attacking Sunderland play. The first goal came from the aforementioned Halliday who headed home after a good cross from Billy Ellis put it on a plate for the striker. Minutes later, Bobby Gurney scored after a goalmouth scramble whilst Clunas made it three goals in ten minutes after a handball in the United box handed Sunderland a penalty. From this point onwards, reports suggested ‘it was all Sunderland penetrations’, and United seemed to fold rapidly; in a game which was deemed as one with ‘too much force’, it appeared United’s injuries caught up with them as the game progressed. Late on, Halliday added three more that gave him four goals for the afternoon and a huge win for his Sunderland team in front of a crowd of 15,385 at Roker Park.
