Welcome to the Newcastle United v Sunderland preview.
Sunday 22nd March with a 12 noon kick-off.
Newcastle United do battle with their arch-enemies this weekend, looking to put the red and whites to the sword at St James’ Park for the first time since Kevin Nolan inspired Chris Hughton’s side to a memorable 5-1 victory in 2010.
Every Newcastle fan has their own derby heroes from Beardsley to the O’Briens, Dabizas, Bellamy, Solano, Milner, Emre, Shearer and even Albert Luque!
Not to mention the ultimate Mackem Slayer, Sir Shola Ameobi.
Can any player in black and white join the above list this Sunday afternoon and never go wanting for a pint on Tyneside again?
The chance for immortality is there for whoever has the strength to stand up and take it.
Form
The Toon have won three and lost three of their past six league matches. Wins have come over Tottenham, Man U and Chelsea, whereas defeats have been inflicted by Brentford, Man City and Everton. We’ve scored ten goals in this sequence and also conceded ten. The nine points gained had us starting the weekend ninth in the table, seven points off the top five.
The Mackems have won one, drawn one and lost four of their past six league matches. They beat Leeds, drew with Bournemouth, but lost to Arsenal, Liverpool, Fulham and Brighton. They’ve scored three goals and conceded nine. The four points gained has them thirteenth in the league with the chance to leapfrog the Toon if they win. If SAFC thought a cup run would provide some respite from their poor league form then they were to be proven very wrong indeed, having recently endured a humbling defeat in the FA Cup at the hands of the mighty Port Vale, currently rooted bottom of the League One table. The fact that the scorer of the winning goal was lifelong Newcastle fan Ben Waine wasn’t lost on travelling Mackems, who were treated to a grandstand view of him doing the Shearer celebration, marvellous!
Last time out
Newcastle went to Barcelona on Wednesday night with dreams of qualifying for the Quarter-Final of the Champions League. A 1-1 draw in the home leg set up a mouth-watering prospect at the Camp Nou and the opening forty-five minutes didn’t disappoint.
Barcelona took an early lead against the run of play but Newcastle roared back with an equaliser just ten minutes later, when great work from Lewis Hall presented Elanga with the chance to fire home an equaliser. Almost immediately, Newcastle’s celebrations were cut short by another soft goal for Barca but the Toon refused to give up and Elanga then scored his second equaliser of the match to send away fans into dreamland. At this point, Newcastle were the better team and looking to take a lead into half-time.
We were soon screaming for a penalty when Elanga went down in the area but nothing was given, despite a VAR check. Just as it looked like we’d being going into the break at 2-2, Trippier was penalised for a foul in the box and Barcelona netted the resultant penalty to put them 3-2 up, making the aggregate score 4-3. With Newcastle having played so well in the first leg and more than holding their own this time around, all eyes were on whether we could do the business in the second half.
Unfortunately, this was a complete disaster with Barcelona scoring four times without reply to dump Newcastle out of the Champions League. Don’t let the scoreline fool you, for seventy-five percent of this tie we were the better team and looked like pulling off a huge shock. Defensive lapses ultimately cost us but this season has seen another brilliant European adventure and it’s imperative that we get the chance to do it all again next campaign.
The Mackems hosted Brighton at home last Saturday and were undone by a second half goal by former Toon player Minteh in rather bizarre circumstances. Minteh’s mishit cross deceived the ‘keeper to give Brighton the lead with a Mackem player lying injured in the box, shame. They weren’t playing in the Champions League midweek due to the fact they have never qualified for the competition in their entire history. The last of their impressive four competitive European matches took place fifty-three years ago.
Stat attack!
-Newcastle and Sunderland have met at St James’ Park on fourteen Premier League occasions. The Toon have won four, drawn five and lost five.
– NUFC have scored nineteen goals at home against the Mackems in the Premier League and also conceded nineteen.
– Newcastle have won eight and drawn two of their fifteen home league matches this season.
– Sunderland have only scored eight goals away from home this season and only won three of their fifteen away league matches.
Memorable match
On 31st October 2010, Newcastle United gave the Mackems an absolute Halloween horror show. The red and whites actually went into this one as slight favourites having competed in a higher division than the Toon the previous season and enjoyed a good start to the 2010/11 Premier League campaign.
The match started at a frantic pace with both teams going hammer and tongs until the breakthrough was finally made, when a Joey Barton corner was headed on by Mike Williamson for Kevin Nolan to knock an overhead kick into the Gallowgate End net. With the Toon fans in a state of absolute frenzy, Newcastle continued to attack their enemies at will and it took just eight more minutes for Nolan to double his, and Newcastle’s, tally after great work from Andy Carroll. At 2-0 up near the end of the first half, Gutierrez burst into the box and was brought down, giving the Toon the chance to increase their advantage, something that Mackem slayer Ameobi was never going to pass up. Shola already had a reputation for scoring derby day goals and he slammed the penalty into the bottom corner to put the Mags out of sight by half-time. This led to hilarious scenes in the away end as most Sunderland fans flounced out and had to sneak back to trains and buses unescorted, whilst jubilant Toon fans either partied in the stadium, or made many a local pub landlord very happy indeed in the ale houses of Tyneside.
Little did we know that the second half was to be even better than the first. Former Toon ‘defender’ Titus Bramble was sent off for hacking down Andy Carroll, meaning the Mackems were now a man down as well as three goals behind. Soon after, Danny Simpson looped a cross into the box for Andy Carroll to crash a header off the bar and Ameobi reacted first to stylishly lash United four goals to the good with an acrobatic effort. Newcastle being 4-0 up with twenty minutes to go was beyond the wildest dreams of almost every single Toon fan but just a few minutes later, it was five. A fine Ameobi header fell perfectly for Kevin Nolan to complete the first NUFC hat-trick over our arch-rivals since Peter Beardsley twenty-five years earlier. There was still time for the Mackems to achieve the merest of consolation goals but this was a magical day. One of the very best Toon displays in the Premier League era. Newcastle 5-1 Sunderland.
Played for both
David Kelly will always have the honour of scoring one of the most important goals in the history of NUFC, when his late winner at home to Portsmouth ensured survival under Kevin Keegan in 1992. He scored thirty-five goals in a two year spell at United, helping us avoid relegation in his first season and achieve promotion in his second. After a spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers, he signed for the Mackems and was subbed on against the Toon at St James’ Park in 1997. This led to the extraordinary sight of a Sunderland player being clapped onto the pitch by a portion of Newcastle fans who refused to forget his contribution to our success under king Kev.
Lee Clark came through the ranks at NUFC and was always happy to express his love for the Toon. He played for United in two different spells, the first one lasting seven years and seeing Clark play over two hundred times in all competitions. Eyebrows were certainly raised when he signed for the Wearsiders in 1997. He spent two years helping them achieve promotion to the top flight but his relationship with the club and their fans broke down in bizarre circumstances, when he was photographed at the 1999 FA Cup final wearing a derogatory t-shirt about the club that was paying his wages. Great stuff! Clark later admitted to trying to engineer a move away from SAFC due to the fact he didn’t want to play against Newcastle in the derby. He spent six years at Fulham (refusing to celebrate when scoring against the Toon) before returning to NUFC for one more season in 2005.
Michael Chopra must have had one of the most unique Tyne-Wear derby experiences of all time! As an NUFC player he enjoyed the delight of scoring a crucial equaliser in a 4-1 win just twelve seconds after coming on as a substitute. Less impressive were his efforts against NUFC when wearing the red and white. In 2007, he smashed a late header off the crossbar that would have won the match. Even worse was to follow for Chops in 2009 when he was played through on goal with a golden chance to win the derby but elected to pass rather than shoot, costing the Mackems all three points. This latter miss was so bad he was subsequently accused of not wanting to score and never played for Sunderland again.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 7-2 defeat away to Barcelona:
“Our defending today was not at the level it was a few days ago at Chelsea. As well as we played in the first half – and I thought we were outstanding in many aspects – there were too many individual errors. The two set-plays are unforgivable because you know how good they are in other aspects of their play. We’re bang on half-time, we should be going in 2-2 with a great feeling and anything is possible. As it is, we’re going in with a negative feeling after the penalty. Is it a clear and obvious error? Maybe it was a bit of a stronger call than our penalty shout, but I think it was tough on us for one not to be reversed and that one to be. Of course, this is where we want to be. As much as today is a harsh scoreline on us and a painful experience, to see the players play as well as they did in the first half and execute ninety percent of what we wanted was a great feeling, a great sight. I don’t think that all should be forgotten with the scoreline, as difficult as that is for everyone to see.”
Regis Le Bris after a 1-0 home defeat to Brighton:
“We are disappointed after our defeat, that’s fair but we are in a really good place. The players are doing well. Ups and downs, but the mentality is good. Sometimes you don’t have the best of times, but I think mainly it was really positive this season. And for the future, the last part of the season will help us as well. Because with those young players in the squad, they will have the opportunity to show themselves. So we are learning every day. They deserve support.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank
Prediction
Every encounter between these two teams is a massively huge deal and there’s no denying we owe them an absolute hiding, having suffered some shocking derby days in our most recent Premier League meetings. The league table doesn’t make great reading for those of a black and white persuasion but a run of form over the next eight matches can see us challenge for the top-five. Sunderland’s form has been poor recently after a good start to the season, whilst the Toon looked good in victories over both Man U and Chelsea. I fancy this to be a fantastic occasion and a well-earned and wildly celebrated victory for NUFC. Newcastle 2-1 Mackems.