Today was the day many felt we could rectify the fact that we were yet to beat Newcastle at the Stadium of Light. It was irrelevant that neither team had been picking up the results they’d like, current form counts for nothing in these games. Rather disappointingly the atmosphere seemed a little bit flat around the ground and in pubs before the match; thankfully this was not the case once Prokofiev rang out around the stadium, almost acting as a cue for the fans to be in full voice.
Roy Keane dropped Danny Collins, Liam Miller, Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy from the team that suffered defeat to Manchester City on Monday night. In came Paul McShane, back from suspension, Ross Wallace, Michael Chopra and the long awaited return of Carlos Edwards.
Some good news before the match was that Kieran Richardson expects to be back from injury in four weeks time.
In typical derby fashion the opening minutes involved lots of fouls and it was very much stop start. We settled much quicker than Newcastle and got the ball down and passed it. Though, just like in past games we were unable to create any clear cut chances for the front men. The referee didn’t help matters by showing a clear lack of ability to referee a football match, allowing Newcastle players to clatter Sunderland players and get away with it in dangerous areas, though he was quick to punish Chopra’s first tackle of the game which appeared harmless. Chopra created a chance from nothing for himself on the stroke of half time, turning on the edge of the box and firing a well struck shot which seemed destined for the top corner until Harper pulled off a good save.
Newcastle never really posed much of a threat to Craig Gordon in the first half and showed signs of being happy with a point, with no real urgency about their play. Joey Barton will have to thank the referee’s inability to see what’s going on around him after a disgraceful challenge on Dickson Etuhu. Etuhu was clearly not impressed by the challenge as he squared up to Barton at the half time whistle.
Thanks to Kenwyne Jones’ quick thinking we were able to hit Newcastle off guard. A quick corner kick to Grant Leadbitter had Newcastle on the back foot. From the corner Leadbitter floated a sublime ball to the back post for the on running Danny Higginbotham who glanced his header past the oncoming Harper. Cue scenes of ecstasy! As all Sunderland fans will know, there is no better feeling than seeing the ball hit the back of the net against the mags, which leaves you with no option but to jump around like a demented person. No doubt the BBC and Sky lost a few microphones at that point.
The ecstasy was short lived as Newcastle equalised just over ten minutes after we’d scored. A cross from Milner somehow drifted in after a lucky rebound off the post. The threat should have been dealt with well before it got anywhere near Craig Gordon, though he shouldn’t be misjudging where his posts are.
We could have went straight back in the lead with a fierce left foot shot from Jones on the edge of the area, unfortunately it went just wide of the post. Newcastle kicked on from their goal but there was only one team that looked like winning it and we could have went ahead eight minutes from time. Unfortunately though Chopra’s header came back off the underside of the bar and fell to a Newcastle player who was able to clear.
A half chance also fell to Dickson Etuhu with seconds left on the clock. The midfielder was just outside the box and had two chances to have a shot on goal but he didn’t attempt it either time, highlighting his lack of ability in the final third. Though he was quick to remove his shirt and run over to Martins to exchange shirts at the end of the game.
Full Time: 1-1
I’ve never felt so disappointed leaving the Stadium of Light with a point as I did yesterday, in many ways it felt like a defeat.
MOTM- Grant Leadbitter.