Can you hear the "Roker Roar"...???

Bet you're thinking to yourself..what on earth is a monkeyhanging hartlepool united / Middlesbrough fan doing writing about the mackems..???
Well i'll try to explain..see the story goes something like this, Way way back before i was born, my mam and dad were very passionate sunderland supporters, in fact i believe every man..woman..child and scabby pit pony in the mining village of Murton County Durham was and pretty much still is..nobody gives you an option realy, its something you're born into and its something there is little escape from..
Truth be known, many would set off mid-morning from the village on bikes or on foot on the 8 mile journey to Roker Park, back in the olden days when cars were few and bus services infrequent..

My earliest memory of  going to roker park was a game against cardiff city which i mentioned in a previous blog-post..i'm realy not sure how many times i've actually stood on the fullwell or roker end terraces or taken a seat in the clock stand, but it must be at least 50.
Inside roker park you would find whole families on the terraces, yes even grandads and grannies with their wooly hats and red,white and black scarves..I think this is where true passion was ingrained into me, no i'm not passionate about sunderland personally, but being a part of a crowd at such a young age its fair to say you cant help but get enthusiastic and want to sing the songs others are singing with their all..

Most of my trips to roker park were from when i was staying with my grandparents in murton..i'd often go along with a friend from the village andy richardson and his dad..However due to my dads still lingering passion for the black cats, we'd sometimes jump into his mates car and head up the A19 from middlesbrough when he was home from working on the oil rigs or in holland or norway..This was only ever done if the boro obviously playing away that day..
We'd pull into the roker hotel on roker seafront and nip inside for a bite to eat and a couple of pints (coke or lemonade for me) as i was still just a young spotty teenager...Then it would be a short walk round to the stadium, avoiding piles of police horse shit, barking alsatians and the odd scuffle outside the pub that was next to the roker end ( cant remember the name of it..)...Not a word was said between us heading to roker park, my dads accent was local but mine and his mate pauls were more teesside than wearside..accents were a dead give away and it was wise to keep it zipped during the game too, but obviously jump around like a looney if sunderland scored...

I remember when i was around 16 or 17 and middlesbrough were away to sunderland..this was to be my first trip with my mates to roker park..we headed off mid-afternoon to middlesbrough railway station for the trip up to mackemland..the train was chokka and there were a lot of familiar faces onboard..there was mass tension on the train and you could see in the eyes of the older lads they were up for one hell of a scrap when we got to sunderland.
This is where the story takes a twist..we'd just got past hartlepool and were heading towards seaham harbour, as we pulled into seaham, all the lads started getting off the train..someone thought it was seaburn (close to roker park) so not wanting to end up at sunderland central with just a few mates, we decided to get off too..
Nobody realy knew where they were and the train had left around 300 of us on the platform, i grabbed one of the lads and told him the direction to sunderland as i knew seaham quite well..so off we went through the village heading to the A19..locals were coming to their doors to see why 300 football fans were walking through their village..some shouted stuff but were ignored..these lads had BIG FISH to fry....As we reached the A19 and then into ryhope village, we saw a massive welcoming party, no not sunderland fans but the local police in massive numbers..This was a bit of a relief but to others you could sense the police had messed up plans for better things..So we were all surrounded and escorted to an area near sunderland rugby club (grangetown i think) and put on yellow double deckers to roker park..
Sunderland won the game 1-0 and afterwards we were escorted to a massive train and sent back to the boro..most pissed off not only with the result, but also the lack of action with their fans.

I'm sure you're all aware of sunderlands proudest moment to date..that 1973 cup final v's leeds united..This club was once the richest in the land, and earned the nickname "the bank of england club" in the 1930's..I'm pretty sure the deep passion is still there with the fans..yes they are currently in the premier league and to be fair just treading water..i feel it wont be long before they plummet back down to the 2nd division as it was in old money..To me they just arn't the same club anymore and dont command the BIG CLUB  title they once held and rightly so...You mackems will say different, but in reality its true...The video below was the greatest moment in the clubs history and i doubt it will ever be matched again.

One thing i will say in favour of sunderland is this..your fans are by far the loudest i've ever heard..when not at football in sunderland and shopping in the town as it was back then, My nana would often say "can you hear the roker roar pet" or hinney (co durham slang for honey)..??? and by christ you could on the town side of the river wear..