Our rivalry with Boro

How seriously do you all take it? Its massive for me wven bigger than playing Newcastle.
Middlesbrough is the town ive grew up in, and ive had to endure alot over the years when they were splashing money left right and centre and even making the Uefa Cup final being the worst.

Their fans hate us with a passion, but we dont seem that arsed about them?
Makes me laugh and the reason for this thread is ive just taken the dog for a walk in my Sunderland top. I decided to call in a pub and there was about 10 blokes in there all sat seperate minding their own buisness till i walked in. I instantly felt all eyes on me, some evil looking but as soon as i sat down with my pint and eye balled them they continued with what they were doing.

It makes me laugh living in Teesside. I wish them constant failure because of the fact ive grown up around them and next to Newcastle you wont fund a much more fickle fanbase

 

It’s a derby.

It’s more of a ‘game with an edge’ than a fierce rivalry to me though.

It’s annoying if we lose to them, but it isn’t a killer. There’s definitely an extra glow on a win.

I actually don’t care about them at all day to day. Wasn’t offended when Julio went there I’d have been distraught had he signed for the Mags.

They get to make us and the Mags rivals as they are a little bit no man’s land, they’d have been better targeting Leeds who I know have a spiky bit for them.

 

No different to a game against Leeds for me, grew up in jarra to be fair so never mixed with them would probably view it differently if I had

 

Ive only ever known 1 Boro supporter. He was a twat. Whenever we beat them, i think of him. Other than that, beating them gives me only slightly more satisfaction than beating anybody else of their ilk. Losing to them is just like losing to anybody else.

 

Julio signing for them was one of my worst ever days supporting Sunderland

 

Aye I get it from your perspective being based there.

They mean little more than most clubs to the vast majority of us I’d wager.

 

I live and work around them imahine my pain lol. All my mates support them too.
They really do hat us with a passion

 

Are you me

 

I quite like Boro. Growing up in midlands meant I quite liked to see most northern sides do well except the Mags. Boro is barely any different to Blackburn or Preston.

 

Also a Jarra lad. Never knew any Boro fans inside or outside of school growing up. I worked with a Boro fan once for quite a few years and he did think that it was a massive game when we played each other. I just don’t see it as a derby game or barely a rivalry. All our songs are about Newcastle, we never sing about Boro.

It reminds me of Scotland and England. The majority of Scots hate us and are always desperate for us to lose and fail. We don’t really care about them or their results.

Tees, do they see us or Newcastle as their biggest rivals? Do they sing about us at their games?

 

I think its more a case of Boro's rivalry with us.
We are their nearest (big) game, whereas for us its the mags.
I dont hate them as a club like I do the mags.

 

Not a derby for me, not even close. I class it as an opposition rivalry similar to Leeds.

Their closest thing to a derby is either Hartlepool or Darlington.

 

It's a localish match giving it a little more added edge for us, imo.

Know a few Boro supporters and it's the game of the season for them.

 

Just us mate. They arent really arsed about Newcastle.

 

What rivalry?....they're just another fixture for me and I lived on Teesside for 30 years.

 

The biggest of mehs, I hate Coventry more.

 

When I worked in doxy my office was 40 to 50% smogs as it was joined together when the smog office closed. Some were great lads, but all of them were a bit different. In fact, in my opinion they're a different breed altogether, but really funny on a night out. Only a couple seemed to be bothered about football to be fair...I dont think it means the same to them.

 

My son's tutor was a smoggie. At parents night, I'd sit down and he'd say "yeah he's doing ok" then we'd spend the rest of the appointment talking football

 

To me it's a very one sided rivalry, they hate us but we largely don't care about them. It IS a derby, but not the important or a big one to us. Losing to Boro is a bit "meh", disappointing to lose but forgot about quickly. Wins are nice, but the same, forgotten about pretty soon afterwards. It in no way rivals the mags for how it feels. I always want the mags to lose every game, unless a win or draw for them helps us somehow, and even then I feel dirty for doing it. With Boro, there's been times I've happily wanted them to win, especially against someone like Coventry, even if it doesn't affect us at all.

In some ways we have or had more butter rivalries with other clubs than Boro. Leeds has always carried an edge, for a while probably a bigger and more intense edge than Boro matches, something that goes back before 73 to the 60s. My dad was there when Bobby Collins broke Willie McPheat's leg (said it was like a rifle being fired, the crack echoed around the ground. The little bastard ran off the pitch straight away and the ref had to chase after him to send him off). There were a lot of feisty matches between both clubs through the 60s, 70s and 80s and I'd still say up to now there's a rivalry. Whether that's as intense as it was back then or has died down a lot is open for debate, but personally the defeat at Leeds last season hurt more than the defeat against Boro the season before.

Coventry are another where I think there's a more bitter mutual rivalry between us. I do think that it was mellowing out for a while in the 2010s until the game at the SOL in 2019 and the way their fans went on. Since then I think it's been stirred up again and I can honestly say that I enjoyed getting the better of Coventry last season more than doing the double over Boro.

Since the 1998 play off final I think there's a rivalry between us and Charlton, though I don't think there's huge animosity between us. More that we've been tied together by that game, recognised as one of the all time great games at Wembley, as well as other games since (2019 season, for example).

Growing up I was filled with stories of epic and classic matches involving us and other teams. Epic derbies against the mags, famous games against Spurs, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Leeds, West Ham... I can't remember my dad or other members of my family telling me any stories of classic games involving us and Boro.

In the end to me Boro are an irritant and there's other clubs I dislike and hate more than them. They're a rival, but then again so last season were Plymouth and Norwich and I don't hate those two, I even have a bit of affection for Norwich. Boro are just a bit more annoying to me than some other clubs, but not as much as some others. I do find it funny that they build up the rivalry to be their be all and end all while we largely don't care, so that winds them up even more. And the more they get wound up, the less it bothers us, which gets them more wound up and so on and so on.