Safc - (1920 -1940)

In an attempt to bring silverware back to Roker Park Sunderland spent a lot of money during the 1920’s and broke the world record transfer fee on two separate occasions.

The teams of the 1920’s were very entertaining, and included prolific goal scorers such as Charlie Buchan, Dave Halliday and Bobby Gurney.

Roker Park was developed in the 1920’s to include a new Grandstand and season tickets were also introduced.

Two defeats against local rivals Newcastle (6-1 away and 2-0 at hoem) prompted the board to buy Jack Mitton and Charlie Parker. Parker commanded a record transfer fee of £3,500.
An unspectacular season ended with Sunderland in a mid table 12th position with the star of the season Charlie Buchan of whom the Time stated

“Their improvement has been largely brought about by the play of Buchan at centre-forward…”
Sunderland’s performances in 1922 were becoming steadily worse and the Lads only managed to secure 3 points in the whole of January and February.

The board, in a bid to stop the slide of poor results spent big, including another record signing of England International defender Warney Cresswell from Second Division South Shields, costing £5,500.

In addition to Cresswell Michael Gilhooley arrived from Hull for a fee of £5,250. Unfortunately Gilhooley was badly injured after only 4 games. He only made 20 appearances for Sunderland.
Jock Patterson also joined the club for a similar fee and Sandy Donaldson closely followed all at the end of March. The Club had spent a total of £20,000 in a matter of weeks!
Performances picked up after the signings and the Lads stayed clear of trouble, including a Donaldson hat trick in a 6-2 win against Bolton.

The next season saw Sunderland challenging for the title with the help on new signings and the goals fro Charlie Buchan, who finished as the leagues top goal scorer on 30 goals.

A poor run in March and April saw the Lads miss out another title and they finished 2nd, 6 points behind Liverpool.

The 1923/24 season saw Sunderland, once again challenging for the title but once again the Lads failed to win the title and the final hurdle and they finished 3rd behind champions Cardiff City and Huddersfield.

The rest of the 1920’s saw Sunderland struggle after some promising starts.
During this time though the club would see the emergence of local youngster Bobby Gurney although he wouldn’t really shine until the 1930’s.

“The 1927 - 28 season ended with a dramatic final match at Middlesbrough. The losers would be relegated to the second division of the league: under frantic pressure from the home side, Sunderland won 3-0 to send Middlesbrough down.” (www.safc.com)

Johnny Cochrane was appointed manager for the 1928/29 season and steered the Lads to a respectable 4th, 5 points behind Champions Sheffield Wednesday. Dave Halliday scored an amazing 43 goals in 42 league games, a club record unlikely ever to be broken.

The Clubs Genreal Meeting reported profits of £1,574 and the Main Stand at Roker Park was built (for about £25,000). Ground capacity was now around 60,000. Season tickets were introduced and season ticket holder had their name printed on their seats.

“Although we failed to bring home the silverware it was widely regarded as a very exciting decade in the club's growing history. The goalscoring was magnificent and we looked forward to a brilliant 1930's, perhaps the last great decade for the club.” (www.safc.com). The appointment of Johnny Cochrane left the Club with hope for future success.

“The 1930's were probably the best seasons ever for the club, in terms of both success and excitement. Manager Cochrane embarked on a rebuilding programme that, with similar overtones to the start of the 21st Century, was built on youth. It paid handsome dividends.” (www.safc.com)

It was a time of high unemployment in the area and this was reflected in the clubs lowest attendance of 4,000 but amazingly during the same period the club achieved its highest attendance of 75,118.

“An FA Cup replay with Derby County in 1933 drew 75,118 spectators, (on a Wednesday afternoon - no floodlights in those days!) another record which will never be challenged.” (http://www.safc.com/)

Jimmy Conner a young winger was signed from St Mirren and started his Sunderland career on 30 August 1930.

Not long after, Johnny Cochrane signed left half Alex Hastings from Stenhousmuir to improve the defence in a bid to seal a leaky defence.

The 1930/31 season saw theLads finished 11th in the league and lost in the semi final of the FA Cup to Birmingham at Elland Road 2-0.

The club saw the emergence of possibly the finest sportsmen ever to have played for Sunderland AFC. Hortatio (Raich) Stratton Carter represented England at both football and cricket and was a fine and outstanding gentleman born in Hendon, Sunderland.

“Raich Carter was one of those players my grandfather would talk to me about for days on end and as a 10 year old boy I would listen eagerly and then rather foolishly try to compare someone like Raich Carter to Paul Lemon”. (Graeme Thorpe, 20 April 2004)

The next couple of seasons saw little improvement and Sunderland finished 13th and 12th in the league for seasons 1931/32 and 1932/33 respectively.

1The 1933/34 season saw a much needed improvement to the side. With strikers such as Bobby Gurney, Raich Carter, Pastsy Gallagher and Davis who finished the season with 21, 17, 17 and 10 goals respectively the Lads were scoring goals.

Young defenders in the team such a Charlie Thompson, Alex Hastings and Johnson ensured that defensively the Lads were improving.

Sunderland finished 6th in 1933/34 and 1934/35 they were ready to begin an assault on the league title. Sunderland took full points from their opening five games.
Then, the Lads started to struggle at home but away from home they were unbeatable until a 6-2 defeat away to Everton on Christmas Day.

Unfortunately, the Lads only managed ended the seasons with 3 draws in the last 4 games and finished in 2nd spot 4 points behind Arsenal.

With a young side, everyone was looking forward to the next season with the hope that Sunderland would become football league champions for a sixth time. During this season Sunderland would have a settled side of:

Jimmy Thorpe
William Murray Alex Hall
Charlie Thomson James Clark Alex Hastings
Bert Davis Raich Carter Bobby Gurney Patsy Gallagher Jimmy Connor

Sunderland didn’t get off to the start they wanted and were beaten 3-1 by current champions Arsenal at Highbury. Victories against West Brom, Many City, West Brom and Stoke put Sunderland back on track and 30,000 fans witnessed a 7-3 thrashing of Blackburn.

Sunderland were playing well and when Arsenal came to Roker Park on 28 December 1935 Sunderland won a classic encounter that could have gone either way 5-4.

During a game in February 1936 against Chelsea Sunderland goalkeeper Jimmy Thorpe lost his life at the age of 22, four days after being roughed up in a game against Chelsea. He was rushed to hospital after the game and it was later found out that Thorpe had suffered form diabetes.
“Jimmy Thorpe, who by chance, has the same surname as me is a man that despite having never met, I often shed a tear for, because he died playing a game of football for the team I support.” (Graeme Thorpe, 20 April 2004)

Johnny Mapson aged 19 replaced Jimmy Thorpe in goal and he would make his final appearance for the club in 1953.

“It is sad to think that despite his loyalty to the club he didn’t receive a testimonial in recognition of his services especially when few players today show such loyalty to one club” (Graeme Thorpe, 20 April 2004)

Mapson made his debut during a 5-0 hammering of Portsmouth that meant Sunderland were ever closer to a sixth championship.

On Easter Monday Sunderland beat Birmingham 7-2 to win the football league for a sixth time.
The trophy was presented at the end of the next home game, that was 4-3 victory over Huddersfield. The Lads had scored 109 goals and conceded 74. Gallagher, Gurney and Carter had scored 81 goals between them. Johnny Mapson summed up Cochrane’s philosophy

“… he said he didn’t mind at all if we conceded three goals a game as long as we scored four at the other end.”

At the time Sunderland joined Aston Villa as the most successful league club in the history of the football league with six titles each.

During 1936 the Clock Stand at Roker Park was built and the same designer who produced the Main Stand was commissioned to complete the work.. Archibald Leitch, the most famous architect of sports grounds of those days, designed it. There were no seats in the Clock Stand at first.

“Sunderland's second FA Cup Final brought their first victory. A 3-1 win over Preston at Wembley brought the famous trophy to Roker for the first time. Raich Carter was made captain because he was the only Sunderland-born player in the team (the usual captain, Alex Hastings, was injured). Among the many stars of that team was Bobby Gurney whose 338 goals in league and cup are still a club record. He retired in 1939 when league football was again suspended by war.” (www.safc.com)

On 1 May 1937 Sunderland, along with Preston North End, walked out onto the hallowed Wembley turf in front of 93,4895 spectators including King George V and King Farouk of Egypt.
The Sunderland side was: Johnny Mapson, James Gorman, Alex Hall, Charlie Thomson, Robert Johnson, Alex McNab, Len Duns, Raich Carter, Bobby Gurney, Patsy Gallacher, Eddie Burbanks.

Gurney had a goal disallowed for a controversial off side in the first half and Preston took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first half. Sunderland went into half-time 1-0 down.

In the second half, Gurney equalised with a header from a corner to make it 1-1 before Carter and Burbanks, who was playing for the injured Connor, got their names on the score sheet.
It is rumoured that the team refused to wear their new strip for the final adorned with a special cup finalist badge. Trainer Andy Reid was persuaded to arrange for the badges to be transferred to the Lads old ‘lucky shirts.

Raich Carter a Sunderland born legend has captained his hometown side in an FA Cup Final and he returned with his troops victorious.

“The naming of a sport complex in Hendon is adeptly named after one of the finest sportsman to have ever been produced from the area. Raich represented his country playing football and cricket and captained Sunderland with great dignity. I feel it is important that children who enjoy sports at the Raich Carter Centre are aware of the talent that was once produced in the place they are enjoying sports facilities that the likes of Raich Carter could only have dreamed about.” (Graeme Thorpe, 20 April 2004)

Sunderland reached an FA Cup Semi Final 1937/38 losing 3-1 to Huddersfield at Ewood Park.
At the end of the season William Murray brought in as the new manager with the task of rebuilding the team. However, his first full season in charge was only three games old when the season was aborted as England declared war on Germany.

Johnny Cochrane had produced Sunderland sides that had won the football league and FA Cup and it was hoped that Sunderland would be victorious in the years to come but the outbreak of World War II meant that Sunderland would never again throughout the 20th century reach the heights that the supporters had become accustomed to.

Next read the Sunderland AFC 1940 - 1960 era.