This place has a presence that can’t be ignored.
They prepare for eleven men, they can’t prepare for you.
The roar that forces the error.
The pressure that changes games.
The moment their belief cracks.
They say it’s hostile, that this place closes in on you.
You don’t just support, you interfere.
Your attitude tilts the balance.
This place doesnt wait, it demands.
You deliver, ’til the end.
Above is a spoken-word piece uploaded to the club’s social media circles to promote the opening of the 2026/27 season
ticket renewal period. It is a pretty strong tub-thumper, evocatively written to pull on our heartstrings, and just to highlight how, for 90% of this season, we have – as the video later states – continued making the difference.
When the season began at home to West Ham, we were all reminded by Lord Lambton fighting the Lambton Wyrm that ‘the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can’. This stadium became Lord Lambton, and the wyrm – the rest of the Premier League. The atmosphere was scintillating that day and has continued all season long. Famous results and performances have turned jubilation and excitement into a siege mentality long lost in the sanctified, immaculate and corporate world of Premier League football.
Arsenal under the Saturday night lights, the return of the visitors to the SoL for the first time at this level in ten years, and the backs-against-the-wall second half against Manchester City cemented this. Late goals from Isidor, Talbi, Brobbey and co have elevated this.
But what is this? It is an extension of the ‘Til the End mentality that developed during the play-off campaign of last season’s squad. All of Sunderland stood up and unilaterally decided neither to bend nor break, to give everything in the stadium, on and off the pitch.
We have continued to make a difference. The stark contrast in home form to away form is not just tactical, but something unquantifiable. A passion, atmosphere, and fans and players connected more than ever before, working together to attain the same outcome. Yet in recent weeks, this seems to have fallen away. Although against Burnley at home, we matched our best home result in the campaign thus far, the atmosphere felt muted. Perhaps attributed to the late Monday night kick-off, perhaps in part due to expectation of victory over a struggling opposition, perhaps the blisteringly cold weather.
But then, when the current Premier League champions rocked up at the SoL, that siege mentality didn’t seem as present. We didn’t have the same feeling that Can’t Help Falling In love was a call to arms, that the Roker End (where I sit) was in the trenches with the players, going to battle. And then we come to Fulham. It was pretty much a library for the best part of 90 minutes, and we all awoke to news on the Monday morning that one of our own, Romaine Mundle, was a victim of a despicable act of racism, by presumably (allegedly) one of our own.
While this is the nadir of the season thus far, and as states is a despicable and unacceptable action – he has been the target of a swathe of unconstructive and unwarranted hatred for weeks. Criticism is criticism, and all are free to express it, and he is well-placed to know how to deal with it. But there are repeated cries of just pure unadulterated frustration and anger at him specifically, in a tone that should be deemed unacceptable, which has snowballed into straight-up racism from one idiot. He isn’t the only one. Trai Hume has been the stand-in captain for Granit Xhaka, and during most of these games has suffered similarly. Others will have too.
These players read everything. Our club captain, before the start of the season, sat down with local journalists, club media representatives and fan media and asked for patience, for calmness, and fair judgment – he was probably anticipating a far less successful season than the one we are currently enjoying.
In this conversation, he emphasised how players react to comments online and have a natural human nature to want to fit in, take them to heart, and enforce a belief system inherent to their person. He highlighted how people learn from mistakes, not the emotive echoes this causes. How speaking with anger and emotion is not leadership, and asked all to consider this. It wasn’t an attempt to censor, but a heartfelt plea.
Yet instead, on that Monday morning, we awoke to widespread (and rightful) condemnation. And the words from our team captain resonate the most:
“Why does this keep happening? When you’re winning, everyone stands behind you. The moment you lose, everything you have accomplised is forgotten. You should never forget where you come from. We are with you, Romaine”.
Granit Xhaka.
Many of us read this and were angry. Angry at whoever was racist to Mundle. But angry at ourselves, angry that this has happened. Clearly, Xhaka is referencing the racist abuse Mundle suffered. But that middle sentence is glaring: “When you’re winning, everyone stands behind you. The moment you lose, everything you have accomplished is forgotten”. You can assume your own subtext of this, but I think that is aimed at all of us. We are in this together. We win together. We lose together. Those players lost on Saturday alone, while thousands walked out early with twenty minutes remaining. Romaine Mundle didn’t have the fans behind him when he was so distraught after missing a great chance to go ahead, he cried as he walked off the pitch. He really cares. How was he repaid for how much he cares? With racist abuse.
This isn’t a targeted attack. I myself have been quiet, have thought we’d see out the win against Burnley, and again on Sunday. It is a call to arms to back Romaine, to back the Lads. Let’s stay ‘til the end, let’s support these lads and get the SoL raccous and rocking again. We are all responsible for when it is loud. We are all responsible for when it is not.
Maybe we are all frustrated at being so close to potential European football for the first time since 1974 on Wearside. Perhaps entitled at our excellent start, thinking that we should just easily bat away the “likes of Fulham” at home. But there is no coincidence – our first two home losses this season have come at this time, when the SoL has been quietened.
Yes, support is earned and not just a god-given right, but have these lads not earned it? We all want Europe, or at least a top-half finish. But even if that doesn’t happen, this has already been an unbelievably successful season. Every single person wrote us off to stay up. “Down by Christmas”, “Easy start”, “Wait until AFCON”, “Purple patch”, and so on. Now they’re anticipating we slide down the table. Let’s all do the best we can to get behind these lads, cos every time we roar, they roar back.
