Sunderland AFC's foremost blog and Podcast!
It’s almost two years to the day since Sunderland secured a vital 1-2 win at Doncaster to ease the pressure on the then Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson, who was under huge pressure after a nine-game winless run. On this day in 2021, Sunderland came into this game in much better shape and put in a […]
Sunderland sit towards the bottom of the WSL2, a position that naturally invites scrutiny, frustration, and emotional reaction. Yet the table tells a more nuanced story: the gap between 11th and 7th is a mere three points, meaning that a short burst of good form could transform the club’s outlook almost overnight. This tension between […]
It’s a date and a game etched into the minds of many Sunderland supporters, no matter whether you were around at the time or not. Boxing Day, 1962, Sunderland versus Bury. Alan Brown’s team were flying high in the second division – second in the league at Christmas after beating Leeds 2-1 at Roker three days […]
Boxing Day is here, and a glut of football is taking place right across the pyramid – apart from at the very top. Only one Premier League game is scheduled for December 26th, that being Manchester United vs. Newcastle United. The rest of the league play will take place across the next three days, with […]
It has become a Sunderland tradition in my household to follow the lads to at least one away game over the Christmas holidays. My brother and I would be overjoyed to receive the ticket as a Christmas present. The next day, we would bundle into the car and begin the trip. I would sit in […]
Given the Lasses’ limited attacking output, there’s a sense that Sunderland haven’t quite reached their full creative potential. Injuries have disrupted their rhythm, limited options, and forced tactical reshuffles, and among the players whose absences have been felt most keenly are Izzy Atkinson and Reanna Blades — two wide players who offer something different. Although […]
Gav says… It’s been a season like no other in my lifetime — not just a season, actually, but a year that’s gone beyond my wildest dreams. The storyline of 2025 for Sunderland has been like no other — and it genuinely could’ve been the script of a movie. The way we’ve won big games […]
The breakout of war in the early 1940s ultimately put a halt to any competitive football in England at this time. This meant that regional leagues and friendlies were the only games in which any club in the country could participate, with the funds raised from these friendly games going towards the war effort. For […]
A very merry Christmas to one and all. A yuletide fact for everyone: did you know Santa’s outfit is red and white because he’s a massive Lads fan? There may be truth in that; there may not. But if he has a Sky Sports package (or IPTV for those of you on the naughty list […]
It’s Christmas Eve! And while we’re waiting for Santa to rock up we thought we’d provide an early treat as we speak to comedian, the host of The FM Show and massive Lads fan… Tony Jameson! All of this and more on, so get on it! This episode of Haway The Podcast is sponsored by LiveScoreBet, […]
Sunderland travelled down to the South Coast for their first league meeting at the Amex Stadium on Saturday as the festive fixtures took hold. With several departures away to the AFCON, how did Le Bris shuffle his pack and really put pressure on Fabian Hürzeler to earn yet another well-deserved point on the road? Sunderland […]
This would prove to be Sunderland’s biggest win of the season as Sunderland battered their Black Country rivals with goals and performances all over the pitch. The Sunday Sun reported in its Christmas Day edition that Sunderland’s left-hand side (Harry Martin and debutant Hawes) gave a sparkling display, with Mitton shining by virtue of his […]
Lutsharel Geertruida has impressed so far this season, proving himself to be a talented, versatile and useful footballer. He’s played in thirteen games for us, starting six of them and coming off of the bench in seven. In fact, he’s only been an unused substitute in one game — the Wear-Tyne derby. This highlights his […]
When considering the frankly staggering rate of progress that we’ve seen at Sunderland in recent times, one game I often use as a barometer is our 1-2 home defeat to Swansea City during the turbulent “season of three head coaches” — 2023/2024. Under Mike Dodds, we were — to put it mildly — bloody awful […]
There are forwards who score goals and there are forwards who seem to carry goals with them, as if stitched into their stride and waiting to be released at the slightest invitation. Emily Scarr belongs firmly in the latter category — a player whose evolution over the past few seasons has been one of the […]
Santa hats and loud Christmas jumpers were the order of the day, and the cloudless blue winter sky matched the jubilant mood on the early Thameslink service from Finsbury Park as we shared stories of how we celebrated Nick Woltemade’s hilarious act of charity. The proximity of this game to Christmas and the long journey […]
It’s Christmas 2025, Sunderland are sat sixth in the Premier League with 27 points from 17 games, we have international players away representing their countries in the Africa Cup of Nations, we still have enough top-class players in our squad to draw away to an established Premier League team like Brighton – and our nearest […]
For those seeking last-minute gift ideas, the 23 December 1950 edition of The Football Echo carried adverts for sporting equipment from Binns and mouth organs from Bergs of Crowtree Road, but the majority of readers were focused on the mood of Sunderland’s favourite cartoon character — and thankfully for them, the “Footy Echo Man” was […]
From the moment Hannah Greenwood walked into the Academy of Light during the summer, there was a quiet sense among those inside Sunderland AFC Women that they’d signed a defender who would not only strengthen the back line but also reshape its personality — not through noise or theatrics, but through the kind of calm, […]
In a speech of July 1957, one of the last Tory grandee prime ministers, Harold Macmillan, coined a phrase, “we’ve never had it so good.” I was flicking through Twitter this afternoon, and that video of Tommy Watson stroking that goal home reappeared on my feed. For some reason seeing that again for the umpteenth […]
Join Gav, Jonny and Ant as they answer all of this week’s questions from the lovely listeners of Haway The Podcast, including… All of this and more – get subscribed to Haway The Podcast so you never miss another episode of our free daily SAFC show! This episode of Haway The Podcast is sponsored by LiveScoreBet, […]
On a cold day in the North East, this was a match that laid bare both Sunderland’s slow but growing resilience and the fine margins that define the WSL. Ipswich may be anchored to the bottom of the table but they refused to play the role of obliging visitors. Instead, they pressed, disrupted and very […]
Sunderland’s game against Brighton on Sunday signified the start of a large portion of the squad’s absence at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. Expectations and predictions have been loud this season. The media has been all too happy to tell us what they think our fortunes will look like. First, we were relegation fodder […]
December 2023 saw Sunderland’s form falter and popular manager Tony Mowbray depart the club. The search for a new head coach took a couple of weeks, and the hierarchy appointed a man who apparently no one on Wearside wanted- Michael Beale. His tenure will go down as one of the worst, most depressing in recent […]
It was a fairly emphatic declaration of frustration from Getafe president Angel Torres, who summed up the scale of his club’s loss and Sunderland’s gain in one simple sentence. We’ve given away Omar Alderete — one of the best centre backs in La Liga — to a newly-promoted Premier League club for peanuts just so […]