Wonderful to meet you and all the other great lads today … … the whole day, from 10am, was an absolute pleasure.
Just been to the Argyll to drop in the whip round money and thank them. Congratulations to one and all … … the Sunderland boys drank more beer than they served on the whole of New Year’s Eve.
Was a good pub and service was spot on. The missus and daughter called back in after they had enough of shopping so that tells it's own story. Was wanting to get back after the match but they had booked a meal at a steak house not too far away from the hotel for 8 and they were already in the way back to the hotel. I would've been happier to just drink myself silly but probably the best option seeing I was driving back. Thanks again for sorting a ticket out @Smug in Boots good view and right on the half way line
This thread has reminded me about the good people in the world . . . . some like to cause problems/ hurt others and some are like Smug, who has gone out of his way again to help fellow Sunderland A.F.C. fans as we can all see on this thread (and others). Well done, Smug, lad and By the way . . . . did anybody have any trouble getting into Wembley with 'the wrong ticket' (like an adult using an U16 ticket) ?
lol - my only slight hiccup was when Smug texted me the other persons surname, which I duly used when the young lass at hospitality asked me. Slightly embarrassed when she asked me for my first name I replied saying - well I have several, Andrew, David, Christopher, Charles, Anthony, Simon, Joseph. Her response was…they used Chris
My pleasure mate, glad you and the girls enjoyed it. There are better ‘Football pubs’ but it’s great for people who bring kids or anyone who wants to shop and eat. Your ticket most likely came from someone on here, I’ve lost track of who, or one of the many friends who came down. I get a few, from people at the club, but most of them are just me passing them on from one person to another. We have a great bunch of supporters
I arrived too late to meet most of you but did manage to meet smug and a few other lads outside dunno if any of you were on here but if you were I'm the one who tagged along with you on the tube back up to Wembley. It was a great day hope everyone has made it back home safe and sound. See you all next season in the premiership.
For anyone interested these are extracts of the 'end of season' messages to the club, ticket office, LNER, etc. They give an idea of the endless effort put into tickets, travel, etc done by people who make no profit and do it all for the love of the club and their fellow supporters. In fact it costs people a fair amount because they don't usually pass on costs, booking fees, postage, etc and finish each season out of pocket. And please, if you don't like me, or people who put in all this effort please, do me a favour, and ignore this post. "Hi all. Well, we’ve finally reached the end of an absolutely fantastic season, with plenty of ups and downs along the way, but most importantly we have some absolutely fantastic memories for all of us and the time spent with family, friends and the wider Sunderland fan base makes it all worthwhile when we get to have days and weekends like we’ve just enjoyed. I’d like to start by thanking Steve Wood, Paul Walters, Chris Waters and Beth Bell (and many more that I’ve missed) for all of their work and assistance in getting the issues resolved that I (we) had at the start of the season. We had a very constructive and positive meeting with Steve and Paul towards the end of September and that meeting proved a very worthwhile meeting for the club, myself, Dave and the branch overall. A number of suggestions were put to us by the club and a number of recommendations were made to us, which we have adhered to in full all season and will continue to do so going forward. The club also requested to use our intelligence and many years of experience having attended so many home and away games over many years and having had valuable and extensive experience over many years of the online ticketing system etc. Thanks to many examples of information gathering by various members of the branch, we were able to share valuable and helpful information to the club in attempts to eradicate misuse of match tickets (examples included fans purchasing away game tickets in phase one and putting them on social media to sell on even during the phase 1 stage) and the online ticketing error during the phase 1 sales period for the Play Off Final. ..... As the club moves to the new ticketing provider for the 2025-26 season, I offered to provide any assistance in testing the system prior to its implementation as I have many years of experience of the Ticket Master system and I’m convinced that I could help the club to eradicate a number of potential bugs/system issues prior to them becoming widespread. Beth advised me that Brandon would be in touch with me as he thought that would be a very worthwhile process and it is something that hadn’t particularly been thought of at the time. I am more than happy to assist in any way that I can to hopefully assist all fans in a smooth ticketing experience. Please do reach out to me if this is something that the club would like to use my experience with. ... We would also like to extend our thanks to LNER, and in particular, Mike Ross, Richard Airs, Charlotte Jopling-Greaves and Maureen Allerston who helped me (us) with train bookings, onward travel when trains were cancelled (Cardiff City on the 1st game of the season springs to mind) etc. They were always available to help us out wherever possible. To put this in to context, we spent £104,292.50 with LNER during the 2024-25 football season. ... Please can I personally thank every single member of the branch for their commitment, dedication and support over not just this season but many many seasons as it’s all of you who make this work with each and every individual contribution.
Just had a message from a Mag relative who's friends passed the pub on Saturday and said hello ... ... very impressed by the Sunderland fans and had nothing but laughs with them all weekend. They'd almost cancelled their weekend break when we got to Wembley
Was a great catch up again at the Argyll, great to meet some more great folk off here. Thank you for organising Smug
Cheers Prof, always a pleasure to see you If anyone’s brain is still functioning a few good reviews on here would help for when we book it for the FA Cup final next season https://x.com/argyllarmspub Argyll Arms @argyllarmspub
Just received this from the Argyll for anyone interested, May 30th, 2025 6:46 PM Hi Neville, Thanks for your message. We just got the reviews,thank you very much for that, and thank you for the cash tips, I have given them to everyone! All of them say thank you, they did not expect that, and they really appreciate the gesture. Your deposit has been refunded and should be in your bank tomorrow, one glass broken all day and thats a record! With regards to the photos, I did take some, shall I send you a text / whatsapp maybe? Looking forwards to the next season games! Cheers, Rob
