Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0 and United didn’t deserve to win but didn’t deserve to lose

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0 – Sunday 14 December 2025 2pm

What can you say?

A match where the players of neither side threatened the opposition goal.

Sunderland had their first and only effort on target in the 72nd minute.

Newcastle United had two on target, both from Bruno Guimaraes, both from distance, neither of them ever going to go in, the Mackem keeper catching rather than saving them.

That was it from an attacking perspective side for either side.

However.

I have seen a lot of derby matches and never seen as bizarre an own goal as the one from Nick Woltemade a minute after the break. A right wing cross, maybe Big Nick a bit unsighted by the Sunderland player jumping a couple of yards in front of him, but still, nothing that should have caused him to score such a stunning own goal as that, his header giving Aaron Ramsdale no chance.

You can only feel sorry for Woltemade, he was back helping his defence out and just got it all wrong.

A bit like how Newcastle got it all wrong in terms of the service up front to the Germany international. The little service he did get was of the wrong sort, a few balls played in behind, which is not what he or NUFC need to get the best out of him. Still a learning curve and I think today certainly a match where Yoane Wissa would have started if fully fit.

To sum up how little threat Newcastle United had, the closest we came to scoring was when our player didn’t even connect. A cross from the right was deflected up in the air and Wissa, who had not long come on, just failed to connect when he slid in front of the Sunderland keeper and it would have been a goal for sure, if he had connected.

We are desperately missing this fox in the box, who will give us a different threat and will always be looking to get in ahead of defenders when crosses go into the penalty area.

Neither team deserved to win because they didn’t threaten a single time between the two sides. That Nick Woltemade own goal sadly turning a tedious goalless draw where nobody was ever going to score, into what will be heralded as a brilliant victory. Which of course any win in a derby is.

No doubt plenty of fans will be saying Eddie Howe got his tactics wrong.

I think fair to say that his game plan was to keep things tight, don’t give Sunderland any chances, then maybe the last 20 to 25 minutes try and win it including bringing subs on.

We will never know if that would have worked in its totality.

The entire first half and indeed entire match, no Sunderland player threatened the Newcastle goal. So that bit worked.

However, when that 46th minute own goal totally undermined the Eddie Howe plan, neither the manager nor his players appeared to have any inspirational ideas of how to get back into the game.

The triple substitution did improve things to a small extent, when Murphy, Barnes and Willock came on, but with Sunderland having that lead to defend, they just sat back really deep and NUFC never looked like scoring. If it had still been 0-0 then Sunderland would have probably felt obliged to try and attack to more of an extent, then maybe Newcastle would have had more space to work in and gaps opening up. However, that is by the by, simply a case of a match that has ended up passing us by and a freak moment turning that tedious draw into glory for the Mackems.

Needless to say, that cup quarter-final on Wednesday night has now been elevated even more into a match Newcastle United need to win. Not that our season would be over if Fulham win, just a case I think of I feel that if we get through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Wednesday, then I think we will be alright against Chelsea on Saturday. Whereas not getting past Fulham would then make that Chelsea match very challenging if on the back of two defeats.

For what it is worth, I thought Lewis Hall and Malick Thiaw were Newcastle’s best players today and Bruno did ok as well. However, as a team this was poor.

Hopefully Dan Burn is ok. A cowardly challenge saw the Mackem player slide in when he knew zero chance of getting the ball and after Burn had cleared it, the Sunderland player’s knee connected with BDB’s chest/ribcage. Burn couldn’t continue and was subbed before half-time, I understood why the referee felt he couldn’t give the Mackem a red card but for sure, he know what he was doing.

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0 – Sunday 14 December 2025 2pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Sunderland:

Woltemade OG 46

Possession was Newcastle 54% Sunderland 46%

Total shots were Newcastle 6 Sunderland 5

Shots on target were Newcastle 2 Sunderland 1

Corners were Newcastle 6 Sunderland 3

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 14 Sunderland 14

Newcastle team v Sunderland:

Ramsdale, Livramento, Thiaw, Burn (Schar 42), Hall, Tonali (Willock 59), Miley, Bruno, Gordon (Barnes 59), Woltemade (Wissa 75), Elanga (Jacob Murphy 59)

Unused subs:

Ruddy, Joelinton, Alex Murphy, Ramsey