The Spirit of ‘37 - Everything you need to know about Sunday’s Roker End Display

Following on from the display in the Roker End for the Play-Off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday last May, the Spirit of ’37 are back this weekend with an all-new display.

There’s going to be a massive display as the players walk out on the pitch, and for it to work as well as it possibly can, all fans in attendance can play their part.

Every person sat in the lower bowl will have something to do, whether that be holding up a piece of card as the players enter the pitch, or a flag to wave. The former if you are in the North, East or West Stand and, of course, the flags in the Roker End.

For this to work we need everyone to be in their seats early - by 11:45am, if possible.

As part of that, we will tease that hopefully the display will be in ship shape by our army of over 100 volunteers attending on Saturday & some of the Wembley flags we were unfortunately blocked from using shall be in attendance.

It’s the first game of the season, it’s going to be a huge crowd and there will no doubt be queues at turnstiles and issues with season cards, so please try your best to do your bit and take part.

If you’re interested in helping pre-game on Sunday, you’d be needed at the Bob Stokoe statue at 9:45 to meet up with the rest of the group - each and every fan is welcome to help out. This will involve holding up coordinated banners so may be quite heavy work for bairns.

In addition, help will be required with the pre-match display that will take place in the Roker End, and we will be meeting outside the stand at 11:30, for anybody who would like to participate.

It’ll look class as the rest of the world watch on from their TV sets and it should hopefully set the tone for the afternoon, just like it did when the display was unveiled before the game last season.

We would also be grateful if fans could discard their individual placards post-match via the recycling bins provided outside the stadium, or at home to make it as easy as possible for our own post-match cleanup team and the club staff. Maybe even keep it as a souvenir of finally getting out of League One...