On This Day (28 Nov 1923): Penalty King Clunas Signs From St Mirren!

When you think of Sunderland’s great penalty takers, Gary Rowell will instantly spring to mind for those of us of a certain vintage.

But, on this day more than 100 years ago, Sunderland’s genuine penalty king arrived from St Mirren for a fee of £2500 – and the 24-year-old Billy Clunas went on to play 272 times for the club, scoring 44 goals – 30 of which were from the spot.

Sunderland, under secretary Robert Kyle, had finished second to Liverpool in the 1922-23 season, and as Christmas approached the man in charge was looking to strengthen a side that had recovered from a slow start to the season to sit in 6th place.

Kyle and one of the Sunderland directors had undertaken a scouting mission to Scotland, to watch St Mirren’s outside right Denis Lawson, with the intention of adding him to the ranks.

Lawson failed to impress in a game against Raith Rovers, but St Mirren’s young right half back, Billy Clunas did catch the eye.

The previous season, Clunas had scored seven goals in 31 games, and while St Mirren’s directors initially batted off the interest, they persuaded by Kyle to accept the offer – and Clunas arrived at Roker Park, ready to make his debut against Huddersfield a day or two later.

Clunas started the game in place of Jack Mitton, and Sunderland emerged with a hard-fought 2-1 win, Charlie Buchan grabbing both of the goals – the second in the last couple of minutes.

Ironically as it turned out, the game could have been won by a much greater margin – Billy Ellis had a retaken penalty saved by the Huddersfield keeper Ted Taylor with ten minutes remaining; the first had been successfully converted but disallowed due to encroachment.

As Clunas established himself in the team, Sunderland’s luck from the spot didn’t improve. In March 1924, James Hogg shot wide at the City Ground in a 2-1 win over Forest, missing the chance to complete his hattrick, while in a game at Anfield a couple of weeks later, Liverpool keeper Elisha Scott saved an Ellis penalty in the closing stages, with the score 4-2 to the home team.

Clunas had been a virtual ever present in the Sunderland team, and he opened the scoring in the first home match of the following season, scoring a goal that was hit so fiercely it literally broke the net at the Roker End, in a 2-0 win over Preston.

It was at Turf Moor in a 2-1 win over Burnley on 29 September 1924 that Clunas netted the first of 30 penalties for the club, however, scoring from the spot on 75 minutes to complete the scoring. His first miss from the spot came in October 1927 at Roker Park, with Sheffield United keeper Jack Alderson saving in a 1-0 win for the away side, but that was one of only three penalties he missed for the club – converting 30 of 33 over the course of six seasons.

While Clunas holds the record for the most penalties scored by a Sunderland player, he doesn’t hold the record for the most accurate penalty taker we’ve had – Gary Rowell with 25 from 26, and Tony Towers with 12 from 13 are the only players who’ve taken 10 or more to outshine Clunas.

The Scotsman left Roker in 1931, joining Greenock Morton, for whom he played 63 times, scoring 10 goals – and famously missing a late penalty in a 3-3 draw with Celtic; the fourth and final miss from the spot.