Game On! Sunderland v Newcastle

Sunderland's Stadium of Light.

Sunderland's Stadium of Light.
You spell it ‘Howay’…
So it’s finally upon us. This game, this contest, this scrap between two factions divided by club colour and heritage. Families split, workplaces divided, this is one fixture that encapsulates a region like no other.

No doubt the nerves are jangling, tensions are rising, passion overflowing. We all have our little routine when it comes to Wear-Tyne derby day and that only ends when the first ball is kicked.

Unfortunately it is hard to get away from the fact that all too often in recent times the bragging rights have been firmly housed on Wearside. But we have to hope that we can stop the rot at the Stadium of Light and take at least a share of the spoils. I mean anything can happen on derby day, right?

The history of the fixture would suggest so as it points out that both sides are pretty much level in terms of wins against the other. You can read that history, injury news, player availability, stats, facts and more in our match preview which you can get to by clicking here.

The game itself is live on Sky Sports so if you’re not one of the lucky 2,800 Newcastle fans present at the Stadium of Light there are other means of watching the game unfold. I’d suggest looking in the ‘comments’ section as you can normally pick up a stream or two courtesy of our very thoughtful regulars.

The same can be said for team, I will publish it as soon as I can but most likely it will be available in the ‘comments’ before I get a chance to get it live on here.

There isn’t much more to say. Are you ready?

Howay the lads!

Sunderland: Costel Pantilimon; DeAndre Yedlin, Younes Kaboul, John O’Shea, Billy Jones; Lee Cattermole, Yann M’Vila; Adam Johnson, Ola Toivonen, Jeremain Lens; Steven Fletcher

Subs: Vito Mannone, Patrick van Aanholt, Sebastian Coates, Sebastian Larsson, Jordi Gomez, Duncan Watmore, Jermain Defoe

Newcastle: Rob Elliot; Daryl Janmaat, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Paul Dummett; Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tiote, Jack Colback, Georginio Wijnaldum; Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic

Subs: Freddie Woodman, Massadio Haidara, Jamaal Lascelles, Vurnon Anita, Siem de Jong, Florian Thauvin, Papiss Cisse

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.

261 thoughts on “Game On! Sunderland v Newcastle

  1. Gary Lineker ‏@GaryLineker · 8h8 hours ago
    Football eh? Madness from Coloccini but don’t think it was a red. Keeper was always getting there.

    Gary Lineker ‏@GaryLineker · 7h7 hours ago
    3-0 to Sunderland. If ever a scoreline didn’t tell a story.

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  2. Mike Ashley Lies ‏@MikeAshleyLies · 7h7 hours ago
    #nufc have one point fewer than from the same games last season.

    Scored 2 fewer, conceded 1 more

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  3. No but we should still be doing better. We had Williamson and Gouffran in the side most of last season plus Rivière.

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  4. I can’t believe Colocini cost us the game yesterday, oh wait I can.
    I’m glad his out of the team for three games.

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  5. I’m not shock that McClaren seems to be the person everyone is blaming, but I think it’s nonsense. We played really good football until Colo got sent off – I don’t think it was a sending off or penalty personally. He shoulder charged him, but doing it with such unnecessary force in the box was always a risk.
    The only mistake Mc made yesterday (IMO) was bringing Thauvin on. I’m not sure if it was a tactical change or just coz Dummett was knackered again, but I think Haidara would have been the better option, or maybe De Jong if it was tactical.

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  6. Stu@233, Fair point but apart from Thauvin I do think we are better going forward and in our passing. The acquisition of Gini and Mitrovic has helped us but the Thauvin money would of been better used to replace Colo. We could also of done with a good DMF player and a RB backup too. We didn’t fully strengthen in the appropriate areas of concern for me mate. This is now showing in the goals we are conceding, we have shown we are capable of creating and scoring but it’s all for nothing if the defence is so poor. Frankly I don’t see any coach sorting out that defence, it needs an over haul and it should of been addressed in the summer.

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  7. For the record I never wanted Steve, but I don’t feel he’s been backed properly player wise. This is a pattern we are seeing under Ashley sadly and it’s become the impossible job for any coach imo. We badly need a new owner who cares about the team performance and addresses the positions that need strengthening and not the acquisition of young potential profit making players only.

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  8. Kim – Maca has already said it will take 3 transfer windows before he has the squad he really wants. It is now looking like this will be too little too late, as we will have been relegated by then.
    I don’t blame Maca for yesterdays defeat in the slightest.
    The players need to shoulder the blame.
    Once again a poor performance from Sissoko. And Tiote is just a disgrace.
    The ref spoilt the game with the red card. Ok it probably was a penalty, and a yellow card would have sufficed. But Cattermole’s challenges elsewhere were just as bad and yet were never punished properly.
    Our team is too frail to play with 10 men. We needed to score in the first half when we were on top.
    I wont be calling for Maca’s head and think he should at least get until xmas to turn things around.

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  9. People calling for Rodgers to replace Maca need to give their heads a shake. Our defence needs sorting, and he proved incapable of doing that at Liverpool.
    Besides, he would still have the same squad Maca has right now. Half of which is utter shyte.

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  10. Oh and I still dont understand why we had to play in that garbage strip.
    black and white and red and white do not clash.
    Is this an ashley decision or what ?

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  11. Everyone seems to be just concentrating on yesterday’s result. I’m blaming McClaren for 1 win in 10, conceding 22 goals, having men sent off in nearly 30% of them games and us being 2nd bottom of the league having spent £50m on new players. JFK and Carver had better records and they spent nothing.

    It’s his responsibility to sort out the discipline and he hasn’t. Do the players respect him? Not sure as they’re not listening to him.

    Of course the clubs transfer policy doesn’t help him but he has better players at his disposal than Carver or Pardew ever had.

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  12. I’d also like to point out that it is McClarens job to find a formation that means we don’t need to keep playing Cokback in midfield along with either Anita and Tiote. None of them are good enough and wasn’t Gini a centre midfielder? One of the reason we struggle is because we have central midfielders who can’t attack and can’t defend.

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  13. I also blame McClaren for consistently selecting Colo when he has bad game after bad game. I also blame him for renewing his contract.

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  14. We strengthened a lot, that is the bottom line. Thauvin is a player who can play in positions we really needed strengthening – look at yesterday, two central midfielders out wide ffs! We were desperate for a winger before Jonas left, so we certainly need someone in. Now, whoever is responsible for getting him needs their head looking at based on his performances so far. I’m not going to lay all the blame at Macca – although he presumably had some input. For years though we were told any of the gems under Hoot/Pardew were Carr’s doing and all the bad ones were the managers fault. Proving to not be quite so simple now..

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  15. I hope collo red card appeal fails,surely the defence cannot be any worse without him,they say ginger heed left on crutches anyone heard owt ??

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  16. I do think we’ve played “Better” football, when we’ve managed to actually get some possession and haven’t leaked goals all over the shop. I’m assuming some of that is down to Schteve, as well it should be as he’s been in far higher jobs than our previous three or four managers. However, how much of it is to do with coaching compared with say, having better passers of a ball – Gini,Mitro,Mbemba – all of whom are better than their predecessors and obviously the key point – not having to rely on Cisse when the ball goes forward? For me, we’ve automatically improved our football based on just getting these players into the team, without any influence from Schteve.

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  17. Even Evans was a steal for 8mil at Wba he knows and played PL far better than any of the toon defenders,not great but solid player playing well for Pulis

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  18. Georgio – There are plenty who are better than McClaren. Moyes, Rogers, Garde (who is going to Villa) or Frank De Boer (who has already said he would be interested). McClaren has been a failure for the last few years. He had the biggest budget in the Fizzy and failed twice, failed at Forest and failed in his previous two jobs to that. How the hell does that warrant him getting one of the biggest jobs in the PL?

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  19. Here is what The Guardian say about the appeal of the Coloccini red card:

    “It is understood that quite apart from arguing that the goalkeeper, Rob Elliot, had the situation covered anyway, Newcastle will remind the FA of a passage in its own rule book.

    The text they are expected to quote says: “A player who places himself between an opponent and the ball for tactical reasons has not committed an offence as long as the ball is kept within playing distance and the opponent. If the ball is within playing distance, the player may be fairly charged by an opponent.”

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  20. Stuart: I said a couple of weeks ago that we should sack McClaren on the basis that I never wanted him in the first place. I was rash there and think our football has improved a lot. Whether that is because we have better players, better tactics or both, I don’t know. Now the results have to improve or Schteve should be sacked before the next window.

    There can only be so many excuses, and the old cliche that the table ultimately never lies comes to mind. I think 19 games is enough to judge and that is how many we will have played before the window opens. I think if we have 18 points we have a chance to survive and so does Schteve. That means we need 12 points from 9 games. I know that is sort of an arbitrary number but roughly a point a game is what you need to stay up.

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  21. Stuart: other managers available: Marcelo Bielsa, Lucien Favre, Nigel Pearson.

    Also Jurgen Klinsmann (to hoots of derision from Troysta). The main stumbling block will be getting him away from Southern California. The USA national team have a very low ceiling and overachieve if they get to a major tournament. The talent is just not there and he may be getting sick of working with Championship quality players. Why not come to NUFC and work with players in The Championship 🙂

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  22. chris houghton has a good record working with championship players.

    based on the amount we employ – i would try and poach him from brighton.

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  23. Good read Shamrock although you missed the obvious pun of Cabella being a Carr Crash. Anyway, I am not sure that Ashley would be adverse to a foreign manager and I named a few in the previous thread.

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  24. Colo is a disaster waiting to happen and we deserve everything we get for keeping him here. Boomsong and Bramble are 10 times better than Colo will ever be.

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