In the run up to Sunderland’s fixture against Bolton Wanderers, all of the talk centred around the availability of striker Benny Yorston. The diminutive striker, who had joined the club midway through
the season before, had struck the winning goal against Middlesbrough the week before, with a 2-1 win at Ayresome Park lifting Johnny Cochrane’s side to 11th place in the First Division.
Yorston had scored in the season’s opener, in a 3-2 home win over Manchester City, but had missed out on the next seven games before returning to the team for a 0-0 draw at home to Leeds. The following week he started and scored in a 3-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday – a game in which an 18-year-old Raich Carter made his debut.
The following fixture saw the two play in the win at Middlesbrough, but with Sunderland having registered just four wins in the season’s first 11 games – and only two without Yorston in the team, news the former Aberdeen striker was going to miss out once again through illness dampened spirits among supporters.
Another element that dampened spirits on the day of the game was the weather.
Torrential rain wreaked havoc with football up and down the country, with ‘atrocious’ conditions meaning only the hardiest football fans were in attendance. Just over 10,000 people were in the stands at Roker on this day 93 years ago.
Carter kept his place in the team, and lining up alongside the home debutant was Bobby Gurney. The 25-year-old Silksworth born striker had scored only two goals in nine games so far this season, but his record before this game – 81 goals in 124 first team games – was very respectable indeed.
The previous season, he scored 15 in 30 games, and the one before 33 in 45.
Therefore, it’s surprising then to read the newspaper reports around this game, which deemed Yorston’s absence a potential hammerblow for Sunderland’s goalscoring ambitions, given Gurney’s form had been ‘in and out’.
The Sunday Sun’s match report began with ‘Mirror’ – the pen name for the journo – saying:
When I learned a few days ago that Yorston, through a recurrence of his illness, would be unable to lead the Sunderland forwards against Bolton Wanderers, I was apprehensive as to the result.
If that sentiment was widespread before the game, Gurney and home debutant Raich Carter seemed determined to prove a point – and they certainly did, treating the home crowd who’d battled the freezing Arctic conditions of wind and rain to see the lads in action.
A 7-4 win, was comprehensive – and the forwards – aided by Jimmy Connor – had a day to remember.
The post-match report continued:
Now, however, I can say that Bob Gurney’s display at centre forward, particularly in the first half, was of international calibre. Not only did Gurney score three of the first half goals – and one after the interval – but his general display was in every way first class.
His spirited leadership received the most generous response of his colleagues, with the result that Sunderland more completely overwhelmed Bolton than the score suggests.
It could all have been different, though, had Bolton taken advantage of an early chance – Jimmy Thorpe saving well from Milsom. However, it was Sunderland who took the lead on four minutes; Jimmy Connor netting in the Roker End, driving in an excellent Gurney cross.
Moments later the lead was doubled, Gurney shooting on the turn – taking the goalkeeper, who was anticipating a cross, by surprise.
On 14 minutes, a momentous moment in Sunderland history occurred – Raich Carter’s first goal for the club, in just his third game, and his first at Roker.
A freekick had been awarded on the edge of the box after Bolton’s Griffiths handballed. The ball was knocked to Carter, who feigned to pass to Connor, sold a dummy that two defenders bought without hesitation, and shoot hard towards the goal and past the despairing keeper Jones.
A minute later, Carter almost had another, this time Jones tipping the ball round the post after a long drive.
Gurney was showing up well ‘more like the Gurney of old’ according to match reports, while Carter was a persistent thorn in the side of the Bolton defence, setting up Gurney for the fourth of the game, and combining with Connor to set up Temple for the fifth – on just 28 minutes.
Bolton pulled on back on 33 through Gibson, but Gurney got his hattrick with the games’ best goal – holding off Finney and rocketing the ball into the top left corner from well outside the box. Gibson got another back for Bolton just before the break, but the half time whistle went with the score 6-2.
The second half was more sedate from a goalscoring perspective – Gurney got one more for Sunderland, tapping in after Carter had hit the woodwork, and Butler got two for Bolton; the second one coming after a Thorpe error.
The game ended 7-4 – a scoreline which flattered Bolton; the match report saying Sunderland’s football was irresistible. I doubt whether there is a defence in the country which could have kept them at bay.
As well as Gurney’s return to form – turning in “one of his best displays since joining the Roker Park club” – a highlight was the goalscoring home debut of Carter, who played exceptionally well and set up at least two goals. The newspaper columns were full of praise, with one commenting: “His play throughout was on a very high plane, and one sees in him a star of the future.”
A prophetic observation indeed.
Sunderland 7-4 Bolton Wanderers
Connor (4), Gurney (7, 24, 39, 57), Temple (28)
Gibson (33, 44), Butler (59, 77)
Roker Park • 10,182
Sunderland: Thorpe, Murray, Shaw, Thomson, McDougall, Edgar, Temple, Gallacher, Gurney, Carter, Connor.
Bolton: Jones, Griffiths (J), Finney, Nicholson, Griffiths (T), Howarth, Butler, Gibson, Milsom, Westwood, Cook.
