VAR controversy during Sunderland 1-1 Everton as Louis-Dreyfus delivers interview
Jordan Pickford’s heartfelt return to Wearside brought several moments behind-the-scenes that struck a chord with me
It isn’t every day you get to interview England’s No 1. It certainly isn’t every day you do it in the same ground you grew up in, watching the same keeper rise through the club you spent your childhood idolising. But on Monday night, under the lights at the Stadium of Light, that’s exactly what happened.
Like Pickford, I grew up on Wearside, watching Sunderland long before either of us imagined we’d end up on opposite sides of a Premier League mixed zone – him with 80-odd England caps, me with a voice recording app and a deadline.
Normally, the Sunderland Echo don’t speak to opposition players. It’s an unwritten rule that lives mostly in the heads of journalists and press officers. But this felt like an exception worth stretching. Everton’s media man did his job exactly as he should, double-checking who I was when I joined the group of Merseyside reporters from The Athletic and the Liverpool Echo. Before he’d even finished asking, Pickford clocked my accent and nodded... that was that – permission granted. Maybe I’m reading too much into it (definitely), but it felt like a quiet acknowledgement of shared roots, a small nod to Wearside.
And I’ll be honest, I’d been a little nervous beforehand. Before the game, Pickford admitted he’d been anxious about the reception he’d get from Sunderland fans; I’d been equally unsure of the reception I’d get from him. I needn’t have worried. He was warm, open and genuinely happy to speak about Sunderland, even in the context of being Everton’s long-serving No 1. What struck me most was how respectful he was towards both clubs. He spoke about balancing his identity – a Sunderland lad who grew up in the Stadium of Light, now representing Everton for nearly a decade – with honesty but without leaning too far either way. That’s a harder line to walk than people realise.
He talked about the game in a very grounded way, seeing the draw as a fair reflection of the night and admitting the Pickford household would probably be grateful for a result that kept things “sane”. He discussed the early chances, the shift in momentum, the periods where Everton felt they might have edged it at times, but that the 1-1 draw was ultimately a fair result. There was no ego in any of it, just a seasoned goalkeeper analysing a Premier League match with the clarity you’d expect from someone who’s lived at the top level for years.
What really hit home was the way he described his reception from the Roker End. He’d been desperate for it to be positive and was visibly relieved that it was. He spoke about growing up in the Stadium of Light, watching the madness and noise from the “Crazy Corner”, and how he’s always tried to carry that same passion into his football, whether for Sunderland or Everton. It mattered to him, that welcome, even more than he tried to let on.
Then came the part that genuinely warmed me: he brought up Anthony Patterson entirely unprompted. With Patterson having lost his place to Robin Roefs and going through a difficult spell, Pickford went out of his way to praise him, mentioning the play-off final and how different Sunderland’s path might have been without Patterson’s saves. It was a small detail, but to me it summed up the man he has become – grounded, loyal and not afraid to champion someone walking the same path he once did.
He also spoke about Sunderland’s rise with a sort of measured admiration, acknowledging the scale of the investment, the surreal nature of seeing someone like Granit Xhaka playing at the Stadium of Light, and the way the club has completely shifted its identity in such a short space of time. There was no bitterness in it, no sense of “what if” for his own Sunderland career, just a genuine pride in watching the club climb again.
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Walking away from that interview, I couldn’t help but think about my own journey in the job. I can remember interviewing Tom Flanagan after a 2–1 win at Gillingham in League One about four years ago. With all due respect to Tom – a solid player at that level and always good to deal with – there are levels to the game. On Monday night, I was standing in front of England’s No 1, interviewing a goalkeeper who has carried his country through tournaments, walked out at World Cups and lifted the nation more than once.
The contrast wasn’t lost on me. It gave me a strange sense of perspective – not in a “look how far I’ve come” way, but in understanding the scale of what Sunderland produces, what Wearside means to the people who come from it and the different paths those journeys can take, whether you end up lifting the World Cup Golden Glove or holding a notebook in the mixed zone. In the end, we all love Sunderland no matter where life may take us.
Pickford walked out at the Stadium of Light holding the hand of his little lad, Arlo, who wore a half-and-half shirt – Everton one side, Sunderland the other. It was a small, simple touch, but it said everything about identity, about roots, about the strange and brilliant dual loyalties this sport creates. And as I sit here writing this with my six-week-old son George asleep next to me, I can’t help thinking that I’ll be telling him one day about the night I interviewed arguably England’s greatest ever goalkeeper.
Pickford didn’t need to speak to the Sunderland Echo. He didn’t need to make that time or offer those moments of reflection and he didn’t need to speak about Patterson. But he did, and he did it with sincerity. In a sport where so much feels choreographed, commercialised or carefully managed, that kind of honesty cuts through and leaves a mark. It reminded me why these little pieces of access still matter, especially at a club where connection has always been the heartbeat.
In the grand scheme of things, these were small moments, the kind that might barely register on the outside, but standing there under the lights, in our stadium and shared home with a Sunderland lad in an Everton shirt talking openly about his roots, it became something I’ll carry with me for a long time.
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