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Sunderland Royal Rovers A.F.C

S'''underland Rovers A.F.C began life as Royal Rovers AFC. A boys' club that grew from humble beginnings playing friendlies on sand behind cattle sheds down the docks to becoming 'the best known local team on Wearside and one of the finest amateur organisations in Durham and the north east of England' before joining the leagues of the professionals and mixing it for over a decade with teams like Hartlepool and Darlington in the top tier outside of the then two division Football League).'''

The Early Years

Buoyed by their success in the local cups Royal Rovers entered the FA Cup for the first time in the 1901/02 season. The FA Cup was a different beast then with 5 regional qualifying rounds including some second tier teams before the rest of Division 2 joined in an 'intermediate round' with the top tier sides eventually joining in round one with just three rounds before the quarter final.

In their first attempt they made the fourth qualifying round before going one better the following season and reaching the fifth qualifying round. However it was a sobering experience as they exited at the hands of Bishop Auckland. An 8-0 loss showing the strength of Bishop, one of the giants on the 'amateur' scene at that time. Bishop Auckland drew league side Preston North End in the next round, narrowly losing out 3-1. Throughout the dozen or so years they entered the fifth qualifying round was as good as it got. Which is roughly equivalent to reaching the early rounds of the modern version, with their conquerors generally going on to narrowly lose to league teams.

Modern teams moan about scheduling but in 1913 they played on the 6th, replayed on Monday 11th, again on Tuesday 12th before playing the next round on Saturday 16th. Unsurprisingly Hartlepools edged them out 2-1.

The Professional Years 1906-15

Royal Rovers initially were not voted into to the new North Eastern League but they were on 'standby' so when Hull City and Hartlepools withdrew they got the invite. After a 'special meeting' they agreed to join the new professional league with Sunderland being added as a prefix to represent their wider regional outlook. The league rules required changing rooms and bathing facilities so the Royal Rovers Ground was obviously of a reasonable standard and it appears to have also been in regular use for local finals and events, so was more than just a shit filled cow field with a rope round.

Ahead of the first season (06/07) in the new league saw them lose some key players. Key forward Thomas Brown moved to Sunderland AFC, goalkeeper Thomson and back Thomas Stewart who had left and returned moved to Clapton Orient and John Thomas Johnson moved to Middlesbrough for £70. In previous years Sunderland legend Raich Carter's father Rob had played for Rovers, before moving on to play league football. Known as 'the toddler' due to his small stature he died at just 47 from injuries sustained during his football career after returning to Sunderland to run the Ocean Queen pub in Tower Street, Hendon.

Despite losing 'two or three of their best players to more lucrative arrangements' the first season was a relative success. The away game at Roker Park against Sunderland A 'yielded a capital game' but despite playing a 'resolute and meritorious game' they lost 3-0. However the home tie saw them beat Sunderland A in front of a record attendance. More than 3,000 also turned out to see Rovers take on Newcastle A and ultimately they finished 7th out of 10.

The next season saw them finish a strong 5th out of 13th. Only Sunderland A, Newcastle A, Shildon and Leeds II finished above. The likes of Middlesbrough A finished below them which gives an indication of their strength in the new professional league. How 'professional' Rovers were is unclear but newspaper reports of cup games against amateur state them as being professionals, the lines between the two were often blurred. The drain of talent to Football League clubs eventually took its toll on Rovers and they finished bottom for the next 4 seasons. Newspaper reports continually refer to the conveyor belt of talent that has found its way into the more lucrative football league from Rovers.

The 'Royal' was dropped in 2010, it appears on the insistence of the league as they wanted to move away from 'pub team' sounding names as South Shields dropped 'Adelaide' and Seaham dropped 'White Star' during their brief foray into the league.

By 1914 Sunderland Rovers were on the rise again, the league had grown to 20 teams and after an 18th place finish in 1913 they finished 15th in 1914. The last full season held before it ceased due to the war was 1914/15 and Rovers finished a creditable 10th ahead of the first teams of Carlisle United, Spennymoor and Blyth Spartans and just behind Hartlepools United. More than holding their own in what was now a very strong league, in line with the founder's aims, with crowds of over 5,000 reported at Rovers games.

Post war?

After featuring in various local 'war leagues' the North Eastern League kicked off again after the war in 1919 with the majority of pre-war clubs carrying on. However Sunderland Rovers were not one of them, they along with Gateshead failed to turn up to the league meeting to restart the league and it was assumed they would not be joining.

The new third tier national league proposed in 1919 came to nothing before the first post war season in 1919/20. However it wasn't long before a third tier was added to the football league as the following season pretty much the entire Southern League was annexed to become the third tier of the football league. It was then expanded and regionalised for the 1821/22 season. Just a few years later 17 of the 20 clubs mentioned in the Daily Herald report were members of the Football League.

Four of Rovers' pre-war North Eastern League peers had also found their way into the new football league. Darlington had cemented their place by winning the league the season before but the others like Ashington, Durham and Hartlepools United had all finished mid-table in the seasons prior to joining the football league, much like Sunderland Rovers had before the war.

Sunderland Rovers were not one of them, they had just 'disappeared' by 1919, coincidentally along with Newcastle City who were one of the other three in the list that didn't make it to Division 3 North.

What happened to Sunderland Rovers?

The trail stops with a newspaper report from February 1918. It states the military authorities have decided to take over their ground for 'military purposes' from April 9th. Rovers anticipate being able to finish their fixtures first. It looks like that is where the story ends, either way there's no mention of them playing post World War One, bar what appears to be an erroneous mention of a win over Burton Albion in 1920.

It appears the ground was turned into an allotment shortly after the war with a 1946 report stating the St Thomas and Royal Rovers Ground allotments, cultivated since 1916 are being covered by a factory, which will severely impact the Laburnum Leek Club as the membership will halve. This supports the idea that the ground was near the Blue House field at end of Robinson Terrace, not far from the Laburnum Cottage pub. Ariel shots from the 1920s show allotments where the map shows a football ground should be.

It's not clear what happened to Rovers, did the military continue using the ground for a period after the war or was it no longer serviceable as a football ground? Perhaps they had a backer who was no longer able to support them, perhaps there just wasn't the will or ability to carry on. Whatever happened the club didn't survive the war. We might well never know for sure but if Sunderland Rovers had survived the football landscape in Sunderland might have looked very different today.