Jimmy Dunne

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James (Jimmy) Dunne (September 3, 1905 in Ringsend – 14 November 1949 in Dublin) was an Irish football player.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Early Career 1.2 Sheffield United 1.3 Arsenal 1.4 Southampton 1.5 Shamrock Rovers 1.6 International Career 2 Sheffield United Career

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early Career

Born in Ringsend, Dunne was a centre forward and started his career at Shamrock Rovers making his debut in 1923, moving to England in 1925 to join New Brighton. Dunne's prolific scoring (six times in eight Third Division North matches) meant he was signed by Sheffield United in February 1926.

[edit] Sheffield United

At first there was no indication of what was to come from the young Irishman. His debut at home in a 4-0 win against Arsenal on September 4, 1926 but he struggled to hold a regular first-team place, with Harry Johnson scoring sixteen goals in eight games. His first goal came against Derby County on October 15, 1927.

It was not until the 1929-30 season that Dunne became a goalscoring sensation. His first hat-trick against Leicester City in a 3-3 draw on September 7, 1929 was followed by successive four-goal hauls against West Ham United on New Year's Day (4-2) and Leicester City (7-1) three days later. He scored another hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers on March 3 before finishing the season as lead goalscorer with 36 goals.

In fact, Dunne was the club's top goalscorer for four consecutive seasons between 1929 and 1933. This included scoring over 30 top division goals in each of three consecutive seasons between 1930 and 1933, a feat which was not performed again until Alan Shearer managed it in 1993-1996.

His best season was 1930-31, where he scored 41 league goals and a total of 50 in all competitions for United; his 41 goal haul remains the record tally in the English league by an Irishman. Between October 24, 1931 and January 1, 1932 he scored in twelve successive games with a haul of 18 goals.

An outstanding header of the ball (a hat-trick against Portsmouth F.C. on 27 September 1930 were all headers), he was also an Irish international, winning 15 caps for his country and scoring 12 goals.

Before long, Arsenal came knocking for United's star player and a £10,000 bid was turned down although they did consider a fee of £8,000 plus Jack Lambert which both players rejected.

[edit] Arsenal

However, with the Depression hitting attendances hard, United were finally forced to sell and in September 1933 he was signed by Arsenal for £8,250.

He made his debut against Middlesbrough on September 30, 1933 in a 6-0 win, and went on to score nine goals in 23 league games that season, picking up a First Division winners' medal. However, the arrival of Ted Drake in the summer of 1934 meant Dunne was ousted from the Arsenal first team, and he would only play another eight games over the next two seasons.

Dunne was dubbed "the most expensive reserve player in English football" in the press, although his Arsenal teammates were more appreciative of his talents, with Cliff Bastin remarking he was "one of the best five centre forwards I had ever seen". United enquired about resigning Dunne in February 1935 but were told that he was suffering from cartilage trouble and he was eventually sold to Southampton in July 1936.

[edit] Southampton

He was the Saints' leading scorer in 1936-37 with 14 league goals in 36 games.

[edit] Shamrock Rovers

After scoring 230 english league goals he returned back to Shamrock Rovers in 1937 and was the inspiration behind Rovers League championship win in 1937/38. The following season Rovers regained the title and also won the 1940 FAI Cup.

In all Jimmy scored 52 league and 10 cup goals for Rovers.

After retiring as a player, Dunne became a coach at Rovers, and had a coaching a spell at Bohemians between 1942 and 1947, before returning to his old club. He died suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 44, in 1949. Although the morning of the funeral saw heavy rainfall many thousands lined the route of the procession which went through Ringsend and on out to Deansgrange Cemetery.

His two sons, Tommy and Jimmy, were also to play in the League of Ireland, Tommy for Rovers and St. Patrick's Athletic and Jimmy for St. Pats alone.

[edit] International Career

During his career Jimmy Dunne was capped by the FAI fifteen times scoring thirteen goals and by the IFA a further seven times scoring four goals. In addition he made six Inter-League appearances for the League of Ireland scoring twice.

[edit] Sheffield United Career

Season	Division	League Apps	League Goals	FA Cup Apps	FA Cup Goals	Other Apps	Other Goals	Total Apps	Total Goals
1926–27	Division One	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
1927–28	Division One	8	1	0	0	1	1	9	2
1928–29	Division One	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	0
1929–30	Division One	39	36	2	2	2	4	43	42
1930–31	Division One	41	41	4	5	2	4	47	50
1931–32	Division One	37	33	2	2	1	0	40	35
1932–33	Division One	40	26	2	2	1	4	43	32
1933–34	Division One	5	4	0	0	0	0	5	4
	Total	173	143	10	11	7	13	190	167