I'm just going to say it once, when I was a kid no one, NO ONE said it wasn't a derby on either side. Here we are 50 years later and the mackems have managed just 12 wins in 49 league games spread across 50 years. They've taken a hell of a pummeling, repeatedly, and now they don't want to accept it's a derby.
This utter failure by Sunderland in the Tees-Wear Derby, and the pretense of it not being a derby, are absolutely related.
Here are a few facts on the derby in the 50 years I've been on the planet.
- We've knocked them out of cups FOUR times, and they've knocked us out just once
- We've won 27 and they've won 12 in the league, 31 Boro wins to 13 Sunderland in all competitions
- We've outscored them in the league 79 to 47
- Longest (and current) unbeaten run 7 games and 10 years 7 months in favour of Boro.
- League doubles, 6 times Boro have doubled them, zero for the mackems