Sunderland v Newcastle preview ahead of derby clash

Welcome to the Sunderland v Newcastle preview.

Sunday 14th December – A 2pm kick-off.

This is it, the big one!

Geordies and Mackems face-off for the one hundred and fifty-sixth competitive time in the first league meeting between the sides in nine and a half long years.

Both sets of supporters will be desperate to get one over their fiercest rivals on an occasion that is not to be missed.

For the players, it’s a chance to write their name into Geordie folklore. For the fans, it’s an opportunity to celebrate a momentous victory long into the night.

The Toon will be hoping to build on their recent good form whereas the Mackems will be hoping to add another eye-catching result to a season that has seen them far exceed expectations. Both clubs have reasons to feel bullish going into this one which really is too close to call.

Form

Newcastle have won three, drawn one and lost two of their last six league matches. Encouragingly, the three wins and a draw have come in our last four matches. We’ve beaten Man City, Everton and Burnley whilst being desperately unlucky to only take a point from Spurs due to a last minute equaliser. Disappointing defeats have come away at Brentford and West Ham. We’ve scored twelve goals in these six games and conceded eleven. We’re currently twelfth in the league and a win would see us climb above the Mackems and potentially as high as seventh after this weekend’s matches are all played out..

Sunderland have won one, drawn three and lost two of their last six league matches. Their win came at home to Bournemouth but they had to do this the hard way after going 2-0 down. Draws have come against Everton, Arsenal and Liverpool whilst they’ve lost to Fulham and Manchester City. They’ve scored seven goals and conceded nine. The six points gained has them tenth in the league and a win could see them potentially end the weekend as high as sixth.

Last time out

The Toon travelled to play Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night and once again lamented conceding a costly late goal. Newcastle weren’t at the races in the first half and were lucky to go into the half-time break only one goal down.

The second half was a different story and the scores were soon level when Woltemade pressured the goalkeeper into a foul, giving Anthony Gordon the chance to score from the spot, which he did. Things were to get even better for travelling Toon fans as Newcastle took a grip on the game and were desperately unlucky not to take the lead when Gordon hit the foot of the post. Soon after however it was 2-1 when Gordon whipped a cross in for Miley to bullet home a header amid wild celebrations. With NUFC pushing hard for a third goal it looked a matter of time before we were celebrating a famous victory. Malik Thiaw forced a fine save from the ‘keeper and then Jacob Murphy unbelievably hit the exact same part of the post that Gordon had previously been denied by. With just two minutes remaining, Leverkusen scored on the break to snatch a draw that many would have taken beforehand but the manner of conceding so late one again has led to frustration, as the Germans added their name to a list that already contained Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham in denying United points due to very late strikes.

Sunderland played away at Man City last weekend and were soundly beaten 3-0. Two first half goals in as many minutes ended the match as a contest and, despite hitting the post, the Mackems never looked like achieving a famous comeback and conceded a killer third with twenty-five minutes still to play. They also saw O’Nien dismissed in injury time for a horror tackle that rules him out for our clash on Sunday.

Stat attack!

-In fourteen visits to the Stadium of Light, Newcastle have only lost four times. We’ve drawn five and won five.

-Newcastle have only failed to find the net away at the Stadium of light on two occasions.

-Newcastle have scored eighteen goals at the Stadium of Light and conceded fifteen.

Memorable match

In April 2006, the derby gave Kevin Ball’s Sunderland one last desperate attempt to salvage a shred of dignity from an abysmal season. The Mackems had failed to win a home match so far all season and were on their way down with a paltry fifteen points, a record low at that time.

A little known fact about this match is that both Kevin Ball and Glenn Roeder had been managing academy teams earlier on in the season and had been involved in a coming together on the touchline during a Tyne-Wear derby of the younger lads. Kevin Ball was to remind him of this when celebrating in Roeder’s face as Sunderland opened the scoring in a first half that left a lot to be desired from a black and white perspective. The Toon endured an awful first half and never really got going as the Mackems were by far the better team and good value for their half-time lead.

Things continued in a similar vein until the sixtieth minute when Newcastle were awarded a free-kick inside their own half. At this precise moment, Roeder replaced Lee Clark with Michael Chopra. As Chopra jogged on to the field, Titus Bramble launched a long ball forward that bounced in the area and confused the Mackem ‘keeper leaving the Geordie striker with a completely open goal less than fifteen seconds after coming on. The travelling fans behind the goal went wild, celebrating such an unexpected turn of events as Chopra celebrated in front of them, hardly believing his luck.

Just a minute later N’Zogbia was pulled back in the area by Mackem goalscorer Hoyte and Alan Shearer had the chance to completely turn the game around. What we didn’t know at the time was that this would be our legend’s last ever touch in professional football. He lashed home the penalty to put the Toon ahead but limped off soon after with a knee injury that prematurely ended both his season and career.

There was no time for United to feel sorry for themselves and just five minutes later, N’Zogbia danced through three Mackem defenders and slammed the ball into the bottom corner to put the match beyond doubt. This was an incredible turnaround achieved by scoring three goals in a seven minute spell in front of incredulous away fans. Most of the Mackems who had bothered to turn up began to slope off at this point, knowing they weren’t going to salvage anything from the match or their season. Those that did stay however were treated to the sight of two Mackem defenders running into each other, allowing Albert Luque a free run at goal, which he gleefully accepted by scoring his first in English football.

With the stadium emptying rapidly and Newcastle fans in a state of ecstasy, the referee blew his whistle to end the match and confirm our biggest away win over our arch rivals in over fifty years on a momentous occasion for NUFC. Marvellous! Sunderland 1-4 Newcastle.

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 helped ensure 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 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 ever! As an NUFC player he enjoyed the delight of scoring a crucial equaliser in a 4-1 win just fifteen 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 2-2 draw in the Champions League away at Leverkusen:

“I thought the players deserve a lot of credit for that response, because you come here and you’re 1-0 down, maybe slightly fortunate in that moment where Malick almost gives the penalty away. That was a big moment for us, that gave us the stability maybe we needed. The second half was a lot better. I thought we were more aggressive in both phases, both on our press and in possession. Played with more belief and looked a really good team: we’re inches away from making it 3-1 a few times.I thought we pressed with more belief. I thought we pressed well in both halves, actually, and regained the ball a lot and I thought we had several opportunities to counter-attack and cause them more problems than we did but we eventually got our attacking game going and could have scored more. It’s a tough one to take. At 3-1, I think it would have been game over. The big moments in games are costing us points.”

Regis Le Bris after a 3-0 defeat away at Manchester City:

“It’s tough to repeat performances at this level. After Bournemouth and Liverpool we are a bit tired. Man City’s quality is relentless so, if you’re not at your best, it’s difficult to manage their threat. They deserved to win. They have built this team over many seasons, but for us it is still the beginning of the journey. This defeat is fair. We have to learn from negative experiences and this one was difficult. We are still feeling really positive.”

Charity

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.

Prediction

Derby matches are notoriously hard to predict and it will be intriguing to see who can perform under such intense pressure. That said, I’m going to nail my colours firmly to the mast. We’ll have better players on our bench then they’ve had in their entire history and we’re starting to hit form at the perfect part of the season. I don’t think it’ll be comfortable but I’m going for a Toon win. Sunderland 1-2 Newcastle.