/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70736614/WhatsApp_Image_2022_04_07_at_9.27.49_PM.0.jpeg)
With the River Wear Derby rapidly approaching and the European Championships less than three months away, we’re getting ourselves ready for the biggest few months in the history of English women’s football by creating a whole new ecosystem of Roker Report Lasses online channels for Sunderland Ladies and England Lionesses fans - and everyone is welcome!
Plus we’ve got some brilliant new writers for you too...
Top new writers!
We are very excited that Jen O’Neil - Sunderland legend, TV and radio pundit, and editor of the pioneering She Kicks magazine - will be writing a monthly women’s football column for Roker Report and also joining us as an expert on our podcasts on a regular basis.
If you’ve never read She Kicks give it a go! It’s packed full of interesting pieces covering the women’s game. Jen also used to write the women’s match reports in the matchday programme at the Stadium of Light in the early 2000s, and you might also have heard her on the Roker Rapport podcast from back in November.
It’s definitely worth a second listen!
We’re also delighted to be joined by Northern Irish Sunderland fan Josh Bunting, who covers Arsenal Women for the Islington Gazette and has also written about SAFC Ladies for the Newcastle Chronicle.
He’ll be writing features for us that bring his wealth of knowledge gained from covering the very top of the WSL to our site, plus we’re sure he’ll feature on our podcast too.
Both Jen and Josh are going to add great journalistic experience to our passionate team of women’s football writers and podders, so give them a follow on Twitter and show them some love... @SheKicksdotnet @BuntingFootball
Daft videos on TikTok!
Yes, we’re so down with the kids here at Roker Report... so we’ve followed the crowd over to TikTok.
We’re already uploading regular short videos featuring SAFC Ladies players, clips of the Lasses in action, and bit and pieces from our Roker Report podcasters on our new TikTok account.
So far, thousands of people have watched TikToks on our channel including Neve Herron protesting her ridiculous red card away at Liverpool, Maria Farrugia’s class goal away at Sheffield United, gentle ribbing of Newcastle United’s struggles to get promotion from Tier 4, and Keira Ramshaw telling everyone just how much she loves Sunderland.
Oh, and an FA Player x Alan Partridge mashup of the March Goal of the Month from Emily Scarr. It’s meant to be a bit of a daft laugh, a bit harmless fun, and all that.
@rr_lasses #SAFC #sunderlandafc #SAFCLadies #Woso #womensfootball #HawayTheLasses #football #footyedit #footytiktok #sunderland @charlottepatters95 @wosothing @sunderlandafc
♬ original sound - RR_Lasses
Pictures and Videos on our Instagram!
Everyone is on Instagram these days. We’ve started an Instagram too page, where we’ll be posting matchday pics from the games we’re at, sharing some of the content we create on TikiTok, as well as putting out our podcast clips and website content such as our Graphic Game series of articles in a new way, focused on telling the story of the Lasses players and fans to people who care.
The new Twitter account & Lasses Podcast Live!
Look, we know not all Sunderland fans “get it” when it comes to women’s football, and that includes a decent chunk of the 40,000+ followers of the main Roker Report Twitter page. There’s no obligation to support the other half of the club, and we know that the audiences for the men’s and women’s sides of Sunderland AFC vary a lot.
We also know that women’s football Twitter is a fun, interesting, and very active community, and as the SAFC fan media outlet that cares most about the Lasses, we want to play our part in that too.
Existing fans play a massive part in bringing new people to the games and raising awareness amongst the wider fanbase, so your likes and shares are absolutely vital in building the audience for the Lasses.
Our Twitter account will now sit at the centre of our new social media offering, linking you in with the latest articles on this website as well as what’s happening on the other channels that we’re developing too.
It’s also where the Lasses Podcast Live will be happening for the rest of this season, and where our Twitter Space content will be broadcast from next year too.
LASSES PODCAST LIVE @ 8.30!
— Roker Report - The Lasses (@RRLasses) April 11, 2022
On the @RokerReport account for the final time!
No Sunderland game but still loads to talk about - internationals, injuries, awards - and who knows who might drop in for a chat!
Set a reminder & share with your friends.#SAFC #HerGameToo ❤️ https://t.co/Rr8NrHEQZZ pic.twitter.com/9QChiAfgQR
Connect with other Lasses fans in our Discord Community!
Twitter and Instagram are not always the best places to have a chat and share your thoughts about women’s football. There’s always “that guy” lurking in the comments section to tell you how you should and shouldn’t follow your team, isn’t there?
So we’ve created a new online community using Discord to help you to connect with other Lasses fans. It’s a safe, inclusive, and moderated space where you can be yourself. It seems scary to begin with, but it’s actually pretty nifty and it’s definitely not just for teenage gamers (although teenage gamers are very, very welcome).
We’ll post all our articles and links to what we’re up to on there, and in the future, we will run exclusive events and live chats on our server. But mainly, this is for you to make your own.
Get news and insider information on our Telegram Channel!
We want to keep you up to date on what’s happening at the club and now you can get the latest news from in and around SAFC Ladies, the Roker Report Lasses team, and the rest of the women’s football world on our new Telegram channel.
From exclusive videos of the Young Lionesses in action for England age-group teams, to stats and injury updates about the squad, this will be the place to get the latest news first when it comes to Sunderland AFC Ladies.
Download Telegram on your phone or computer and click here to follow our channel.
A new Podcast?
The Lasses Podcast Live is really fun, we get to speak to really interesting guests and you can listen back to the recordings. Twitter Spaces will always have their place in our coverage of SAFC Ladies.
But live broadcasting has its issues - technology sometimes lets us down, we’re not always sure who is going to speak to us and when, the audio quality for you as a listener is not always tip-top, and if you don’t catch it live it can be hard to find where to listen back.
Plus - importantly - not everyone who cares about the Lasses is on Twitter.
So, in the run-up to the Euros, we are looking at creating a new Roker Report Lasses podcast - standing proudly alongside the men’s Roker Rapport pod that we all know and love and very much with the same audio quality standards and production values. Interviews with top guests, in-depth discussion and analysis of games, plus our opinions on the future of women’s football at Sunderland AFC.
More on this to come...
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22888913/HGT_Logo_2.jpg){kind=logo}