Sunderland v Newcastle – Derby Day match preview!

Dirty Monkey Mackems

No caption needed! The time for talking is nearly over as an entire region downs their collective tools in preparation for the big one. Quite simply there is no bigger match around these parts.

It’s time for our annual jolly down to Village of the Damned to take in the unwashed at the Stadium of Light. I can just about hear the banjo-twanging and sound of 1p and 2p pieces being sharpened as I type.

This match needs no build up. It needs no hard sell. It’s the one that fans of both sides look out for when the fixtures come out, and this season it comes earlier than ever. Bragging rights are standard and local pride is up for grabs. Going back to work after a Derby Day defeat is an insufferable feeling that is hard to take – just ask any Sunderland fan.

So what better place to start the build up to the big match than our widely respected match preview? As ever I’ll start with the home side.

Sunderland

John O’Shea is in with a shout of making his debut for the unwashed as he recovers from a hamstring injury. Other debutants in waiting are Connor Wickham and Craig Gardner after both watched the 1-1 draw with Liverpool last week from the bench. Asamoah Gyan should be fit to feature after recovering from an injury picked up last week.

I don’t expect the unwashed team to be much changed from last week in truth. To their credit they played well against a disjointed and lacklustre Liverpool side who struggled after an initial opening 35-minute bombardment. The team named by Mrs Doubtfire last week looked a bit like this.

Sunderland: Simon Mignolet, Phil Bardsley, Wes Brown, Kieron Richardson, Anton Ferdinand, Lee Cattermole, Sebastian Larsson, Jack Colback, Ahmed Elmohamady, Stephane Sessegnon, Asamoah Gyan.

Newcastle

Newcastle are still awaiting the arrival of the left-back that was supposedly going to be arriving this week whilst the striker the ongoing hunt for a striker continues in vain.

With that in mind I’d imagine that we’ll be seeing Ryan Taylor at left-back again. Now he isn’t my favourite player, but I’ll give him some credit and say that he done OK against Gervinho and Theo Walcott last weekend. If he can do the same this weekend against Seb Larsson then I may just cut him some slack. Maybe.

Also our pair of starting strikers are unlikely to change with Demba Ba and Shola “Mackemslayer” Ameobi set to get the nod unless something dramatic happens between now and noon today or unless Alan Pardew decides to alter his tactics for the game. Different game – different gameplan maybe?

In terms of injuries and fitness, Sylvain Marveaux and Shane Ferguson came through 90 minutes of a reserve match during the week, which is great but I’d still be surprised to see them given a starting berth. A place on the bench looks most likely if anything.

The midfield area is the key area in this game. We dominated that area of the pitch last season and look what happened. It will be vitally important this time around aswell, and looking at what we have in midfield we have all the ingredients to once again come out on top in that department.

Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye are all battling to play in the middle of the pitch, with Barton also being up against the likes of Gabriel Obertan – who impressed while making his debut last weekend – for a place on the right-wing.

On a personal level I’d be tempted to utilise the strength we have in midfield to our advantage. Joey Barton has to play as he can wind them up while Cheik Tiote had the Sunderland midfield in his pocket last season. After another week of fitness training behind him and he will be capable of doing the same again. Maybe as a wildcard we could drop a striker and play Yohan Cabaye as an attacking midfielder in the hope that he can replicate the form of his most productive Lille season where he bagged 15 goals from that same advanced position?

I’d go with a team that looks a little like this:

Newcastle (4-4-1-1): Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor, Gabriel Obertan, Joey Barton, Chiek Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Yohan Cabaye, Shola Ameobi*.

* Shola simply has to play against Sunderland.

Facts and stats

There has not been a 0-0 draw between Newcastle and Sunderland since the inception of the Premier League and the games between the two sides average 2.8 goals per game.

Sunderland have won one of the last 13 encounters between the two sides. Overall there have been 146 meetings with Newcastle being the top dogs having come out on top 52 times compared to Sunderland’s 46.

Sunderland have lost six of their last seven home matches since drawing 1-1 with Newcastle in the corresponding fixture last season. They have lost 10 of their last 15 Premier League games, mustering only 11 points in that time and have not kept a clean sheet at home in eight matches since a 3-0 victory over Blackburn on New Year’s Day.

Statistically Alan Pardew is a better manager than Steve Bruce. Pardew has managed a win percentage of 42.91% from his 550 managerial games whilst Bruce has only won 37.02% of his 570 managerial games. In terms of the Premier League, Pardew has an overall winning percentage of 32% ahead of Steve Bruce’s 27%.

Mind you, Newcastle have only won one game in the last eight matches although they have picked up an average of one point per game in that time. Dare I say it, but I’d take that on Saturday lunchtime.

Cheik Tiote has been booked in his last six consecutive matches. It’s likely he’ll get his seventh in seven tomorrow. Another player looking for seventh heaven is Shola Ameobi who is searching for his seventh goal in ten games against the filth.

I’m getting the pre-derby nerves. I’ve had them for days in truth although I had assumed that it was copious amounts of Cauliflower Cheese doing what it does best. I’ve had excitement and anxiety with many many more feelings wedged between them. It will only get worse as the clock counts down to kick-off.

I’m not predicting any result. I’ve become wise enough to stop doing that as my predictions are awful and anything can happen on Derby Day. Nothing less than 100% effort will do though.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 20th August, 2011.

Kick-off: 12pm.

Ground: Stade du Shoite.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

72 thoughts on “Sunderland v Newcastle – Derby Day match preview!

  1. 2-1 to us. Connor wickham is the only player from their side that I would take to sjp. Our team is better than theirs even in it’s weakened state. Off to put cash on 2-1 to us and shola to get winner.

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  2. My team would be….

    ———————————————— Krul———————————————–

    Simpson—————–S.Taylor———————Coloccini————–Ferguson

    Obertan—————Cabaye————Tiote————Barton————Marveaux

    —————————————————-Ba———————————————-

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  3. Sorry. Typed Williamson but meant Colo 😕 I’ll change it shortly

    Johno – re: hits. Were averaging about 13,000 a day according to Google analytics which is the seat counter basically 🙂

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  4. Unwashed ha ha u scruffy twats make me laugh. And micky Uve got to be kiddin with your better team comments. Ur living in the past. Get a grip and use your brains. Sorry what was I thinking! 3-1 sunderland win

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  5. SAFC – 5-1 has a nice ring to it no? Carry on spending for all I care, your club will always be ****. 😆

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  6. Toonsy, Is that from separate IP addresses or does it include multiple hits from regular visitors throughout the day? Either way, this is clearly the best fan site. .com has too much speculation as it’s headlines. Lazy journalism compared to this very site, which focuses on on the broader picture in a more intelligent and reasoned way.

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  7. Living in the past by the way? Really? 5-1 and a draw you were desperately lucky to snatch at the death after being dominated for 90 minutes in your own back yard? That was only last season! At least we have a past. 😆

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  8. I ain’t slagged anyone off who ain’t deserved it. I’m after a good game of football tomorrow and some good banter. For me it’s too early in the season for this fixture but in at the deep end I suppose. Still stand by my prediction but can see a toughie

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  9. Which is why the server baffles me. It can handle heavy consistent traffic, but gets poleaxed by spikes in traffic 😕

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  10. I don`t think Simpson is one of our better players, but, when we sell we are reluctant to buy how much longer can this go on for. Our squad is becoming more and more depleted. I don`t think that will be the last bid for one of our players before the end of the window!

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  11. From other thread but feel it’s important.

    How many more people who know what is actually happening need to come out and say the club is in a poor state and isn’t being ran very well before people will realise we’re up **** creek?

    As I have said many times before i don’t get annoyed or angry when I hear and see things going wrong – I accepted a long time ago we’d go nowhere with these lot and it’s on;ly annoying the rose tint brigade.

    They will say it’s a bitter ex player but remember they were saying the same when they were at the club.

    Real problems imo.

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  12. Well that’s a good reflection on the quality of the site then Toonsy. Perhaps the server tries to redirect to another route when the spikes occur and then has to re-source when the demand goes back up?

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  13. Marktoon – I wouldn’t be bothered if I was confident of getting a replacement for Simpson 😐

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  14. Yeah your trophy cabinet is full. My mistake. So u beat us 5-1 then dropped like a stone. I’d rather finish higher and get beat twice! Oh and the way your clubs run u might think u have a past but u certainly won’t have a future if that umpa lumpa stays in charge

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  15. We can have our say about the way our club is run safc but it`s got nowt to do with you! After last season go crawl back into the woodwork most of you did after 5-1 I never seen a red and white shirt in the metro for months.

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  16. Hey SAFC, how do you feel Gyan is working out for you so far?

    Credit to you boys: There was a small crowd of Sunderland fans in New York that turned up at Nevada Smith’s, a big “soccer bar” in the city, and they were loud as f!@# and put on a good show, singing the whole game through.

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  17. Gyans a bit of a mystery at the minute. Can be great but can also be a bit reserved. Hope this is his season tho

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  18. Shamrock – Nah. Its essentially too man requests trying to be pushed through at one time which is why it tends to happen just after a new article has published 🙂

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  19. Simpson? thinks hes better than he is, overated because of his ManU history and like Enrique, has many faults defensively, Simpson backs off too much and Enrique couldnt mark his man on the back post.
    We could do a lot better in both full back positions for me, problem being that we are very good and put a lot of effort in getting rid of players, but not so good in bringing them in.

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  20. Erm, I beg to differ. Conservative the board might be but the club is stable. Your club will run itself into the ground if you continue to spend vast amounts on average players and continue to win nothing and fail to qualify for Europe. You honestly saying you are happy getting 1 point and a 5-1 hammering from a club that has just returned from relegation and then only managing to finish 1 point above them? Jeez that’s what years of being the underdog does to a club I guess! The last 20 years Sunerland have really dropped off. In the past decade we have had a consecutive run of 5 wins in a row over you. Sunderland’s last run like that was over100 years ago and that was only 3 in a row!

    Anyhow, both clubs have a fairly similar history in terms of actual trophies won so fair is fair I guess. I have no animosity towards Sunderland FC, just like the rivalry that you occasionally deliver. I would say best of luck tomorrow but….. 😉

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  21. Ahh got you Toonsy. Could be a recurring theme as the site popularity increases then? TBH, not really noticed a great number of occasions when the site has frozen as of yet though…

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  22. Haha this season is the first year Bruce can actually say it is his team although I still wouldn’t mind a left winger and a proven premier forward. if Bruce fails this term I’m sure he’ll be on his merry way but I’ll give him time and say top ten would again be acceptable looking at where we were 5 years Go.
    Sunderland fans in general are under no illusions. We were a yoyo club for years and apart from a minority are happy with the stability which we needed to build on. The futures looking bright for us and like u shamrock I can’t say good luck. It’s not in our game is it and would we have it any other way?

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  23. Haha no we wouldn’t SAFC 🙂 Good result against Liverpool by the way, unlucky not to beat them. I think most NUFC fans secretly would have been more than happy to see you turn them over actually! I’m going to say 1-1 tomorrow. Both clubs have a bit of gelling to do and us in particular still have a signing or two to make.

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  24. How can the team be just his now, he’s had 2 full seasons and he’ll get half a season this, if he’s lucky 😉

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  25. Toonsy – What you need is clustered servers with some sort of content switch.

    The clustered servers should be identical to each other and both host the website & database. The content switch then balances the load between the two boxes.

    If one of the servers goes down it will fail over to the other server so the site remains up. However the load balancing will pretty much rule out the site falling over because of the load unless of course you get too many users for both servers to handle.

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  26. Remind me again, SAFC. How many european games have you watched during your time as a wearside tramp?

    Ever been to Milan?

    @David – It’s a blog, not some enterprise level application, why would a blog need that? It’s far too over engineered and far too expensive.

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  27. Wonder if we’d have a LB by now if raylor had gotten a proper hiding against ****.
    These prices do seem a bit ridiculous for LBs tho. 7 mil for peiters and m’bengue? 9 mil for cissokho? I guess I can slightly understand cissokho’s price as he’s a full French international but they’re still bloody left backs!

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  28. Too all you dirty mackem scum too the tune of the adams family … your father is your brother your sister is your mother they all f*ck each other the mackem family da da da da 😉

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  29. I think it’s madness that Tavernier was sent out on loan. We need him in our squad at the minute! Bring him back and start him at LB seriously. 😮

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  30. Too all you dirty mackem scum too the tune of the adams family … your father is your brother your sister is your mother they all ***** each other the mackem family da da da da 😉

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  31. Nedum Onuoha for a couple of million would be a step up on simpson even after his allegiances from last season, Could cover centre half and a far quicker, better right back than DS, But same thing thing counts with the current farce trying to find a decent striker and left back, If the club sell someone then replace them with someone of genuine quality theres no problem, The problem comes with mending and making do E.G. Raylor and Shola starting tomorrow… 🙄

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  32. Yeah two tough games to start for both teams. Don’t think anyone would be displeased with a draw against Liverpool or arsenal.

    I’ve travelled all over the world Micky. Holidays and work but unfortunately not with my team. One thing I’ve learned is wherever u go you always find **** holes. Sunderland and Newcastle are no different! You prove that u inbread ***

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  33. And the award for the shittest comeback ever goes to the ****** at post 11!!!

    Seen better pictures of my ma? Well yeah obviously, if you had said worse than fair enough. What a complete and utter spacka.

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  34. *inbred

    On a serious note SAFC, how’s it feel playing in Europe for the first time in over 40 years? I know it’s really just Wales but we can just pretend and get excited if you like!

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  35. Onuoha is good and still young but we were priced out by the Chelsea goal he scored. They wanted 9 mil and he would’ve come but it was too much.

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  36. toonsy says:
    August 19, 2011 at 12:25
    Sorry. Typed Williamson but meant Colo I’ll change it shortly

    Johno – re: hits. Were averaging about 13,000 a day according to Google analytics which is the seat counter basically

    That is great to hear. Love this place. Thanks for all your hard work!!!

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  37. I don’t know what’s more astounding. U understand the countries in Europe and created a half whit joke or you can count up to 11.

    But on a serious note them photos of your mam werent a joke. Sure the first couple were funny but then they got a bit more disturbing and when the donkey showed up I had to stop flicking through them!

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  38. Nice. Straight from school that one and I’ll have u know I always shower after a sex… Unlike ur mam.
    And look at little Micky bless him with his primani suit on. U look very special in that photo maybe a bit like rainman without the iq

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  39. OH and Moreno just in case u Havnt figured that insult out yet…… That was the point of the post. That I’ve seen better pics of your mam!!! Jesus u belong with the rainman

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