Sunderland 7 Bolton 4
October 29, 1932

IT may not sound like a glamour tie, but when Sunderland take on Bolton, one thing you’re almost guaranteed to see is goals – and plenty of them.

Last season, the Black Cats romped to their first win in 14 games with a 4-0 win over Owen Coyle’s side, a result Steve Bruce would love to repeat when the Wanderers travel to the Stadium of Light this Saturday.

But in a ten-year period over the Twenties and Thirties, Sunderland ran out 6-2 winners three times over Bolton, as well as thumping 7-2 and 5-1 victories.

But the highest-scoring game between the two Premier League sides came on October 29, 1932, when a crowd of 10,000 at Roker Park watched no less than 11 goals hit the back of the net.

The Wearsiders ran out 7-4 winners against the fellow Division One side, with goals from Jimmy Temple, Jimmy Connor and Raich Carter, but the day belonged to the club’s record goalscorer, Bob Gurney, who bagged four goals in what was a fruitful afternoon for Johnny Cochrane’s men.

Despite bad weather and treacherous conditions, it was one of those games where Sunderland could do nothing wrong and a decent Bolton side just couldn’t cope with the onslaught of free-flowing, fast-attacking football.

Sunderland’s first-half performance that day was described as “irresistible” and, by the time the referee blew for the interval, the scoreline already read 6-2.

At one point, the home side were 5-0 up after goals from Connor (5), Carter (15), Temple (30) and Gurney (8, 25) had shell-shocked the visitors, with Sunderland absolutely flying out the traps.

The second half was a much more even affair to the 45 minutes that had preceded it and, although it looked like Sunderland would go on to get many more after Gurney’s fourth on 55 minutes, it was the visitors who scored the remaining two goals of the match to make it 7-4.

It might be quick to assume that the Wearsiders’ opponents that day were very poor, but that was far from reality and they attempted a spirited comeback, which could have happened had they not been behind by so many.

Scoring four goals away from home should be enough to win any game and, if Bolton’s luck had been any better, they might have got something from it. Gurney unsurprisingly stole all the headlines with his second four-goal haul for the club, something which ranked as one of his career highlights, along with ten hat-tricks and five goals in a single game.

Although Gurney did get all the attention for his goal scoring, it was the performance of a promising 18-year-old that helped the striker to four goals.

Making only his third league start since joining the club a year earlier, Raich Carter was the real mastermind behind the victory, not only scoring, but also creating goals.

It was almost impossible to single out a weak link that day, but the attacking duo of Gurney and Carter undoubtedly led Sunderland to this thumping win.