Fan Letters: Sunderland season card renewal gripes & harsh player ratings scores on the agenda!

Dear Roker Report,

Sunderland still cant get the admin side of things right. They are trying to get everyone to renew season tickets online on a joke ticketmaster site that has been a problem since day one. To make things worse the when you ring ticket office they direct you back online and don’t take calls. I sent ticket office an email and they rang me next day at work.

I need to renew 4 family members tickets who cant get into their online accounts. The lady in ticket office offered to help set up new direct debits for me... but as I was at work I didn’t have the others details. She said I would have to make an appointment for her to ring me back as they weren’t taking calls at ticket office. I arranged for her to ring me at 10 o clock next day... waited all day and no call. It’s now entering easter holidays so they’ll be shut till tuesday and are only doing earlybird prices and holding seat until following weekend.

It’s a joke, you can’t pick up a phone and ring to speak to someone.

If rumours are true ticket office might not be re-opening... and lady couldn’t confirm or deny this... it’s not the way to run a football club... online with a dodgy website... I know loads of people who’ve had trouble with Wembley tickets and opening an account to get a streaming pass.... some have just given up.... more fans will be lost if things don’t change.... from an irate fan and his family.

David Wilkinson

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Sad to hear you’ve had a bad experience David. I can only really speak of my own experience, which was a brilliant one. I had changed email accounts recently after a change in job and couldn’t get into my account - I sent a message to Chris Waters and emailed the ticket office, and the next morning I was called by both to help assist me get online. They couldn’t have been more helpful.

Ultimately they are trying to assist thousands of fans and maybe a bit of patience is required - you’ll get there in the end, just keep trying.

Photo by Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

I usually agree with the guy that does your player ratings and he usually rates the lads quite similiar to how the chronicle and the echo do as well, however reading his player ratings today for the oxford game one stood out in particular.

I think handing Gooch a 5.5 rating is scandalous, a goal and a wonderful assist and a full 90 and he gets a 5.5?! He worked tirelessly down the left, causing problems and as a player who gets a lot of criticism what more does he need to do until people begin rating him more? An 8/10 would’ve been my preference or 7.5 if we’re being harsh, but a 5.5 is absolute rubbish.

Joseph Barron

Ed’s Note [Matty]: Hi Joseph! As I stated in the article, I felt Gooch would have been removed at half-time if it wasn’t for his late goal. I didn’t feel like he linked up with Wyke like O’Brien does, and I didn’t think he was in the game much in the first-half.

I acknowledge that in the second half when we changed things he did very well to assist McGeady’s goal, so perhaps my rating was harsh on that note, but I just felt he did not impact the game enough in the first half despite scoring and maybe that stuck in my mind when rating him.

I understand in a 3-1 victory it may seem harsh to criticise, but if Oxford didn’t go down to 10 I think it would have been a very different score line so I didn’t want to give everyone positive ratings just because we ended up winning by two. Thank you for emailing with some constructive criticism, I will take your feedback into account moving forward!

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images