Earlier this week, we sat down with Kieron Brady, who has been digging into achidden Sunderland story.

Most of us know the name Raich Carter, the local lad lifting trophies and leading the side out at Wembley in 1937. But that same year, another captain from Wearside was leading a very different mission. Captain Frederick Robinson.

While the team chased cup glory, Robinson was sailing towards the Spanish Civil War, carrying aid to those resisting fascism. Yet even then, he and the other volunteers crowded around a ship’s radio to listen to Sunderland’s result. For a few brief hours, football was their escape. A reminder of home. Of normality. Of who they were fighting for.

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