Happy birthday to Marco Gabbiadini, who was born on this day in 1968! Following a 3-1 loss at Brighton in 1987, which left us in tenth place, Marco made his debut at home to Chester – and we lost 2-0. Away at Fulham, though, a few days later, he started alongside Keith Bertschin and scored in the first and last minute to set his Roker career away. For the next game, Eric Gates was recalled, and the G Force was born. Marco scored twice in that game as well, and the next one, and for the next...

Shall we score a pen for you? Shall we sco-o-ore a pen for you? In very un-Sunderland fashion, the Lads won a penalty shootout 3-0 against England's top penalty stopper, with Le Fee banging the first in and O'Nien blasting in the third. We'd gone ahead with Enzo's clever goal at 1pm then were pegged back as the ref's game disintegrated on 75 minutes and he gave Everton the softest of penalties with three to go. Mind, we were by far the better team (words of an Evertonian, not me) and should...

On this day in 1986, former Sunderland midfielder Grant Leadbitter was born in Chester-le-Street. He first joined our academy aged 16 in 2002 and remained with the club until 2009. He eventually rejoined us a decade later to help us out whilst we were in the third tier, retiring at his boyhood club in 2021. We all love a local boy in the team and from a personal point of view there was the added bonus that Grant came from the same place as my mam, Fence Houses. He also played alongside a...