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The shipyards and the mines; the industry.
It’s what we are and it’s something we should be proud of. Our banners, placards and flags are printed in an old shipyard on the banks of the Wear, that’s important to us. Our ultimate aim is to give people an identity. That’s what we want for the Roker End. We want that to have a reputation like the Fulwell End used to but we want it to be entirely fan led. We work with the club in terms of getting access to the stadium and making sure we aren’t crossing swords with safety and security but this is a fan initiative and it has to stay that way.”
Although the individuals within the group wish to remain anonymous they have managed to collect almost £12000 from fans so far, which they planned to spend on a display at Wembley but it never happened, why was that?
“Wembley was horrific. When we put the Sheff Weds display on at the SoL the club were really accommodating. They gave us that access and allowed us to plan. Wembley is a different kettle of fish altogether. You have to deal with one person who has the authority to
say yes or no. We get fire certificates for the SOL so that wasn’t a problem, it was the placards. Think about the logistics of getting all those cards down to London and then setting them out. That would mean we would have to take time off work for a few days, find digs in London and all sorts and then there’s the safety tests which are extremely rigorous at Wembley. The club were planning something too so when they said they had found a company based at Wembley that would do it all for us it was a no brainer really, so we signed up to it.”
“We got banners printed with the money that the fans donated and arranged for them to be delivered to Wembley. It wasn’t until the Thursday evening before the match that we got a call from the club to say the placards had failed the safety test. This
was a company that had experience of setting up Wembley displays, there was no reason for us to expect that news. Luckily, we hadn’t actually paid anything, but it was devastating when we got that call. We then found an alternative supplier, but that failed
ALOVESUPREME
ISSUE259
43
BY MICHAEL LOUGH