Roker Report
Sunderland AFC's foremost blog and Podcast!
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Give It Your Best Shot, Lads!
Gav says… What this team has collectively managed to achieve over the last two years is nothing short of amazing. They’ve brought me and countless other Sunderland supporters a raft of happy memories that we’ll never forget, from the drama of last season’s playoffs to beating Newcastle twice this season and being the last team […]
Régis Le Bris’ Future — The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
The rhetoric regarding possibly replacing Régis Le Bris must look baffling to outsiders looking in. Inside two years, he’s taken a club that finished sixteenth in the Championship to mid-table in the Premier League and a great chance of getting a top half finish (and Europe — I’ll keep banging that drum until there’s no […]
News Roundup: Sunderland Linked With Argentine Defender & Brazilian Winger
Italian Defender In The Sights Reports in Italy claim Sunderland are tracking Parma’s Argentine defender Mariano Troilo, with the Black Cats said to be in discussions with the player’s entourage to ‘gather information and understand any room to manoeuvre’. The 22-year-old has quickly become an important part of the Parma team after breaking through earlier […]
Haway The Podcast | NEWS ROUNDUP | Isidor’s Future, Ghisolfi’s Influence & A New Club Shop!
Goooooood morning Sunderland! Join the Lads as they give their views on all the latest news emanating from our beloved football club, including: All this and more! Get subscribed to Haway The Podcast so you never miss another episode of our free daily show. Want to get in touch with us? You can drop us […]
Talking Tactics: Wolves (A) — “Set Piece Party!”
Sunderland returned to action down in the Black Country after a dismal showing against Nottingham Forest. Facing an already-relegated Wolves side who were already playing with next season in mind, how did yet another set play take away the opportunity to add three more points to the away tally for the season? Sunderland lineup With […]
Sunderland And VAR: From Wembley To Wolves!
Another debatable point from Dan Ballard’s sending off — apart from the ‘hair tug law’ itself — was the intervention of VAR. At that point in the match, Sunderland were leading 0-1, were in control and looking like we were going to cash in against the bottom and already relegated side in the table. The […]
On This Day (7 May 1985) Ashurst Job Safe Despite Relegation, Says Cowie
It was the morning after the night before. Sunderland were waking up as a relegated club, after a defeat at Leicester sealed a fate that had looked increasingly likely as April progressed. The Milk Cup run had perhaps taken some attention away from the league danger that was never lurking too far away, and the […]
Haway The Podcast | HAWAY THE Q&A | Form Guides, Fans Recording Exits & Next Season!
Today’s show is brought to you in association with Saily. For more details on today’s special offer, go to saily.com/haway, and remember to add in the discount code of haway to get 15% off. Once again, you brilliant people have sent in some cracking questions for us to attempt to answer! So Andrew and Ant […]
On This Day (6th May 1967): A Neil Martin Masterclass At Roker Park
Despite a fighting draw in our last game at Roker Park against the Busby Babes, we came into this match sixteenth in our third top-tier season since promotion in 1963/64. It had been a season with Ian McColl at the helm that had flattered to deceive, with the jury still out on the Baxter plan […]
Dan Ballard’s Dismissal Highlighted The Need For A Rule Change
The dismissal of Dan Ballard in the 24th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Wolves brought up a huge point for debate. In the immediate aftermath of the game, there were a fair number of our fans who, despite having not seen the footage of the incident at the point, seemed to be of the […]
Replace Régis Le Bris? “Not For Me, Clive”
Establishing yourself as a successful Sunderland head coach/manager is not, never has been and never will be merely a question of possessing the appropriate level of tactical nous, efficient use of overlapping full backs or of making substitutions at the right time. Those attributes help, of course, but in my opinion, the question of personality […]
Haway The Podcast | FA CUP 1973 | Kelvin’s Story Of The Greatest Cup Final
Welcome to a special episode of Haway The Podcast as we celebrate the 53rd Anniversary of the FA Cup win in 1973. We’ve dug through our archives and found Kelvin’s recollections of the game – a memorable day! Sit back and enjoy our master storyteller recounting his efforts to get to Wembley – and how […]
View From The Away End: Wolverhampton, Via The Watering Holes Of Birmingham
Still reeling from the shocking, humiliating and generally bizarre thumping at the hands of Nottingham Forest, it was time to face our third consecutive Midlands side in the shape of already-relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers. That home loss had felt completely incongruent with the mood around the city before kick-off. The streets had been filled with red […]
What Will The Future Hold For Dennis Cirkin?
Ciaran McKenna says… I’ll be gutted if Cirkin leaves — largely because I love the lad but also because he’s a talented footballer that hasn’t really had the rub of the green, but if you take sentiment out of the situation, you see why he doesn’t look likely to get an extension. For one, his […]
“Thanks, Granit”
It’s perhaps a mark of the sheer impact made by Granit Xhaka during his time at Sunderland that despite arguably not being at his absolute game-changing best in recent weeks, he still exudes enough in the way of sheer aura to leave nobody in any doubt of his influence, his standing and perhaps most importantly, […]
15 Things You Might’nt Know About Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup Final Win!
Want to impress your mates in the beer garden as you raise a glass to the 53rd anniversary of our famous FA Cup win? Look no further… 1. At 5’4”, Bobby Kerr is the smallest captain to ever lift the FA Cup. 2. He did lift it, and promptly dropped it as he descended the […]
Haway The Podcast | ROKER REWIND | Pt 1 | How Close Was Don Revie To Being Sunderland Boss?
Welcome to Haway The Podcast, and today we delve into Don Revie’s time at Sunderland – with the aim of finding out just how close he was to becoming Sunderland manager! In today’s show, Martin and Kelvin look at: We’ll be back next week with Part 2 of the Don Revie and Sunderland story, but […]
Editorial: Stick With The Lads ‘Til The End… Cos You Just Never Know What Might Happen
Sunderland’s mathematical safety in the Premier League was confirmed with the point at Wolves on Saturday afternoon, yet the potential we’ve seen from what this team can achieve when they put their minds to it has had me lusting for even more recently — and that’s left me in a rather strange position as I […]
Fan Letters: Hairstyle Queries, A Call For One Last Push And A Need For Louder Questions!
Dear Roker Report, Lads, we need you. Last few times we’ve needed a push you’ve driven it. Three huge games, Europe dream faint but alive. Need a fans push/shout/rally for our last three games. Let’s have the SoL bouncing like Coventry, like the Visitors and like so many others for the last two home games. […]
Mission Accomplished! Wolves Point Mathematically Seals Safety
Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Wolves may not have been ‘first on Match of the Day’ material, but it did ensure we’d be kicking off in August as a Premier League club. In the summer, survival was the main aim, with anything more being a bonus. With 35 games played, we haven’t been lower than 13th […]
A Goal Achieved Amid A Season Of Success For Sunderland
Strange feeling, this. For the last time we were able to celebrate Sunderland guaranteeing another season of Premier League football as a newly-promoted club, you’d have to go way back to the 2007/2008 campaign as Roy Keane and Niall Quinn’s magic carpet ride climbed to an even higher altitude (or so it seemed at the […]
On This Day (4th May 2024): Want A Reminder To See How Far We’ve Come In Just Two Years?!
We’ve done these ‘On This Day’ for around five or six years now, and there are just days where there is an obvious pick to write about, but all of us who contribute to these pieces try to pick out the more obscure game/event from the day, rather than the obvious one if we can. […]
Haway The Podcast | Sunday Supplement | James Copley On Hair Styles, Red Cards And Safety
Welcome to Haway The Podcast for our Sunday Supplement show, in which Chris and Martin are joined by The Sunderland Echo’s James Copley to discuss all of the drama from Molineux. On today’s show: All this and more! Get subscribed to Haway The Podcast so you never miss another episode of our free daily show. […]
Talking Points: Wolves vs Sunderland – Hair Pull, Red Card And VAR!
The Red Card In a relatively drab and uneventful 90 minutes, the glaring talking point is the moment the entire match turned on its head: Dan Ballard’s red card in the 24th minute. It was a red card by the letter of the law, that’s pretty hard to dispute. The problem, however, is the law […]
Matchday Musings: VAR & The Officials… Incompetence Again!
Most of us are told not to pull hair as children, but we are never taught to caveat that with “But what if I’m focusing completely on the ball, ref?” How many playground fights would have been pardoned? How many children have been falsely disciplined, forever tarnished as a dirty hair-puller? Dan Ballard’s sending off […]
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