Skip to main content

Roker Report

Sunderland AFC's foremost blog and Podcast!

Latest Entries

Fan Letters: Is Trai Hume Best Suited To A Role At Full Back?

Want to have your say on all things Sunderland? Drop us a line and we’ll publish your views! [email protected] Dear Roker Report, I believe Trai Hume is a very good full back but I don’t think he’s good enough to play in midfield. Hume has started thirty two league games — nineteen at full back […]

Trai Hume Is Sunderland’s Selfless Warrior

Amid the ongoing chatter about his supposed Premier League quality and whether his ‘natural’ position is one in which we may need to upgrade in the future, two things are true of Trai Hume. The first is that he is not, never has been and never will be ideally suited to the kind of peculiar […]

MLS

Dave Watson: A Battle Bigger Than Football

Dan Ballard’s sending off against Wolves dominated discussions around Sunderland last week, with the club deciding to appeal against his VAR red card for the now much-talked about hair pull. However, while the club waited for the FA to predictably reject their appeal, elsewhere, a far more significant – but much less publicised – decision regarding […]

On This Day (11th May 1997): An Agonising End To The Final Season At Roker!

I started last week’s OTD in a similar theme, because as a group we’ve been doing this for five or six years now, and we usually check to see what others in the group have written about before us before we pick one and get going. At this time of the season, however, you realise […]

Talking Points: Sunderland “Quick On The Draw” As United Are Held

Sunderland’s recent progress is highlighted once again It’s often the football club that draws the most attention to the city of Sunderland, and even when the headlines are focused on other aspects, the Lads can still be an example of what’s needed for things to be at their best: folks from different backgrounds coming together […]

2 Up, 2 Down: Gritty Sunderland Give Manchester United A Scare

Ciaran McKenna says… A much improved performance from the Lads We moved the ball quickly and were a threat on the attack. After the last few poorer performances, it was nice to see us being positive with the ball and giving the fans something to get behind. We didn’t give them a look in for […]

On This Day (10 May 1975): Sunderland Fans Count The Cost Of Their Support

10 May seems like it could be an expensive day to be a Sunderland fan, with the club announcing season ticket prices on that date for two years running in the mid-1970s. In 1974, moderate increases were announced and exactly twelve months later, the club issued a fresh set of letters to season ticket holders […]

Matchday Musings: Sunderland’s Progress Continues At Home To Manchester United

On the beach? Checked out for the season? Disheartened after the European dream had faded somewhat in recent weeks and perhaps a touch edgy following a disastrous performance last time out at home against Nottingham Forest? Absolutely not. If Sunderland’s players had been showing signs of feeling the pace at the end of a long […]

Starting XI: One Change Predicted For Sunderland Against Manchester United

We’re without Dan Ballard today because a braid hit his hand (violently, apparently), and that’s a big blow as we don’t have another centre back like him to come in and take his place. The question of who will replace Ballard will be answered by what Le Bris does with Trai Hume – whether he […]

Score Predictions: How Will Sunderland Fare Against Manchester United?

Martin Wanless predicts… Score prediction: Sunderland 0 Man Utd 2 Sunderland’s first goalscorer: N/A I’m not too confident about today’s game — United are in really good form overall and they must be in title winning-form since Carrick took over. Hopefully we can finish the season strongly and if I’m wrong, I’ll be delighted! ‘The […]

On This Day (9 May 1999): The Lads Are Officially Crowned Division One Champions!

What a fantastic day and what a fantastic memory! After just missing out on promotion in 1997/1998, Sunderland got the job done in emphatic style, beating Birmingham City 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in the last game of the 1998/1999 season, and earning promotion as Nationwide Division One champions. At the time, it was […]

On This Day (8 May 2023) Mowbray Proud As Sunderland Reach Play-Offs

It was a wet day at Deepdale on this day in 2023, but nothing was going to rain on Tony Mowbray’s parade after a 3-0 win for Sunderland that secured the newly-promoted team an unlikely play-off place. Whilst a promotion push may have been somewhere on the agenda, it certainly wasn’t a priority for this […]

MLS

“Black Cats And Red Devils”

April 2017 was the last time Manchester United visited Wearside, leaving the Stadium of Light that day after a comfortable 0-3 win over ten-man, almost-relegated Sunderland. This was our twenty first defeat in thirty one games that season, and we would go on to lose a further five during a dismal campaign. David Moyes was […]

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 […]

MLS

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 […]