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Is Boro a derby?

I’ve got a horrible feeling you’ll beat us, I’ve have it large all week to my Sunderland mates and when I seen a stat that you’ve only won 3 times in the league since 54’ it tells me a win is overdue 😂 would like to see both clubs push for the play offs but I think it could only only be one of us plus Hull with their Jan business look really strong imo.
1-1. Classic derby result
 

I don’t check their result every week hoping they lose. I don’t think their fans are weird. I don’t have any nerves during the build up. I don’t check the fixtures to see when we’re playing them. It just doesn’t have that derby feel to it. Neither does the mags since their takeover come to think of it.
 
Not quite a derby for me though the press want it to be and big it up.
Depends I think on where you live in the region, I'm in the north and barely even think of Middlesbrough never mind go there. There's only us and mags around me and coming across a Boro fan is a rare event. But I understand that Sunderland fans a bit further south will probably have a different attitude, and that for Boro we're really their nearest rivals.
 
Sunderland's record away to Boro has been awful since 1960 though, and in that time we have *tended* to be slightly better/have a better team than you. I think there is an element clearly of the players at Boro being more up for it than our players.

Sunderland haven't tended to have a better team than Boro since 1960 mind. Finishing position of each club since 1960 actually indicates Boro have edged it. Look at the finishing position of each club in the 64 years since 1960 - Boro finished above Sunderland 35 times. Sunderland above Boro 29 times.

Not trying to point score - both teams have had dismal periods. But you can't forget boro have had some very good teams in that period - Charlton, Rioch, Robson and McLaren all lead very good Boro teams through the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s that were often just better than Sunderland (although it doesn't explain how bad your record is).

I just don't buy this argument of Boro having the record they do because they see it as a bigger game. We have horrendous records against a few clubs in the championship and it isn't because them clubs see it as a huge game, get really up for it and we don't care as much. It's just a quirk of football. Leeds have an excellent record against us and trust me we are always massively up for it.
 
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This debate has been done to death but for me it's simple. Boro, Sunderland and Newcastle are North-East clubs, therefore when we play each other it's a regional derby, I'm not sure why some people struggle to understand that.

If it doesn't feel like a derby then that's fair enough, but it doesn't change the fact that factually it's a derby.

One thing I will say. If you go on the Boro board you'll find there isn't an 11 paged thread on Sunderland, yet we're the ones who are supposedly obsessed.
 
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In my opinion its a devalued derby. Im 51 and when younger its was a derby no question. It might not have been a big as the Newcastle derby but it was nonetheless a derby and all that went with it.

Arrogance on our part has devalued it. At some point the we are a bigger club then them morphed into we arent really that bothered and then into this isnt even a derby and now Sunderland fans see it as a normal game.

It is a local derby by definition of what a derby actual means in football via locality.

By being arrogant sods all weve done is make two more football games more boring.

Great post. It's a a shame it has become devalued. The more games like this the better, surely? Especially for Sunderland and Boro in the far corner of the country.
 
When I was born Boro was in North Yorkshire officially. I personally do think it's a Derby game. 30 miles away. I actually don't mind Boro. The Geordies I don't like. However to me it's a Derby. So is Hartlepool and Darlo if we played them
What's the thoughts?

What’s a Derby is the first question?

When you hate the other team?
When the thought of it fills you with dred.?
When special police measures are needed?
When it’s the biggest crowd of the season?
When it’s the nearest town/in the same town/same conurbation?
When there is some historical reason

I think only the third one applies for me … so I don’t think it’s a Derby.
I used to think it was when I was a boy mind.
Not a chance. Middlesbrough can focus on Derby days against Darlington, York, Hartlepool and Leeds at a push

Don’t forget Scarbourgh , Whitby and Harrogate
 
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This debate has been done to death but for me it's simple. Boro, Sunderland and Newcastle are North-East clubs, therefore when we play each other it's a regional derby, I'm not sure why some people struggle to understand that.

If it doesn't feel like a derby then that's fair enough, but it doesn't change the fact that factually it's a derby.

One thing I will say. If you go on the Boro board you'll find there isn't an 11 paged thread on Sunderland, yet we're the ones who are supposedly obsessed.

Boro is in Yorkshire, south of the Tees isn’t the North East.
 
Not quite a derby for me though the press want it to be and big it up.
Depends I think on where you live in the region, I'm in the north and barely even think of Middlesbrough never mind go there. There's only us and mags around me and coming across a Boro fan is a rare event. But I understand that Sunderland fans a bit further south will probably have a different attitude, and that for Boro we're really their nearest rivals.

To be honest my attitude to the mags and Boro was pretty similar in the 70s but there was no way near the levels of hate that have existed since the days of John Hall and the creation of the Geordie nation. Before then we were so similar. Since then they have become the most arrogant, deluded and disrespectful supporters on the planet, hate them with a passion
 
I would say even the mag derby is dead now, they barely cheered when they beat us a few weeks ago, and a lot of us felt zero devastation afterwards.

Boro are a local version of Coventry, we rarely beat either, they both probably hate us more than any other club.
This debate has been done to death but for me it's simple. Boro, Sunderland and Newcastle are North-East clubs, therefore when we play each other it's a regional derby, I'm not sure why some people struggle to understand that.

If it doesn't feel like a derby then that's fair enough, but it doesn't change the fact that factually it's a derby.

One thing I will say. If you go on the Boro board you'll find there isn't an 11 paged thread on Sunderland, yet we're the ones who are supposedly obsessed.
Are there Sunderland fans on the Boro board? I'm not calling anyone obsessed because that's sad as fuck, but ha'way, I bet it's all Boro on your forum.
 
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Are there Sunderland fans on the Boro board? I'm not calling anyone obsessed because that's sad as fuck, but ha'way, I bet it's all Boro on your forum.

Yeah there is - not as many. This is a very busy board compared to most clubs though.
 
To be honest my attitude to the mags and Boro was pretty similar in the 70s but there was no way near the levels of hate that have existed since the days of John Hall and the creation of the Geordie nation. Before then we were so similar. Since then they have become the most arrogant, deluded and disrespectful supporters on the planet, hate them with a passion
Sums it up exactly. The John Hall period changed attitudes so much, particularly the conceit and condescension shown by mag supporters to anything to do with Sunderland. Sadly, with their current resurgence it’s like turning the clock back to the nineties. In well over 50 years I’ve never hated them so much.
 
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