“It’s not their fault their club is Sunderland.”
Rivalries are the lifeblood of football fandom. Having a club to hate intensifies your love your club, because you’re not them. The best rivalries are local, and often involve both sets of fans having more in common than the fans would like to admit.
The Tyne-Wear derby is intense, passionate, and seldom enjoyed these days, with Sunderland down in League One. The Netflix docuseries, Sunderland ‘Til I Die, charts their fall from the Premier League to the third tier. In the second series, new owners Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven set their sights on taking the Black Cats back up the leagues. Narrator: they do not go up.
We sat down with a Sunderland fan, Morgan Lowrie, and a Newcastle fan, Charlotte Robson from the True Faith podcast, to watch some key moments from the series and see whether they could find some common ground.
"These are real people who love their club. It's not their fault their club is Sunderland."
We got a Newcastle fan to watch Sunderland 'Til I Die. pic.twitter.com/mRo6PD9nfM
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) May 13, 2020
