Monsieur Salut writes: after an opening 40 minutes of worryingly inept football, Sunderland sprang into life to beat Newcastle 3-0 and keep the run going. Jermain Defoe’s introduction when injury left Ola Toivonen unable to continue made the difference. Suddenly, in first-half stoppage time, his pass of Premier League – one of few Sunderland mustered in the first half – cut open the United defence. Steven Fletcher looked about to reach it ahead of Ellott and Coloccini bundled him over. Clear penalty, clear red and Adam Johnson did the rest, sending us into half time with the lead. Shaky moments followed the interval but Costel Pantilimon, harshly blamed here last week for the WBA winner, pulled off a couple of terrific saves before Billy Jones and Fletcher made it comfortable. The season has started …and our seven-word specialist summariser Pete Sixsmith went home a happy man
Oct 25 2015: SAFC (1) 3 Newcastle United (0) 0 West Bromwich Albion Nothing better than the joy of six
Oct 17 2015: West Bromwich Albion (0) 1 SAFC (0) 0 * At least the pies were good quality to which Sixer adds Another Pantilimon error means still no win
Oct 3 2015: SAFC (2) 2 West Ham United (1) 2 Dick can be proud of his (?) players
September 26 2015: Manchester United (1) 3 SAFC (0) 0 Routine for United thanks to defensive errors
September 22 2015: League Cup: SAFC (0) 1 Manchester City (4) City’s brilliance aided by pathetic Sunderland defending or Defence horribly exposed by a rampant City or Not on the same planet as City
September 19 2015: AFC Bournemouth (2) 2 SAFC (0) 0 Couldn’t recover from a truly abysmal start
September 13 2015: SAFC (0) 0 Tottenham Hotpsur (0) 1 Vastly improved performance not reflected by result
August 29 2015: Aston Villa (2) 2 SAFC (1) 2 * M’Vila and Lens snatch a shaky point
August 25 2015: League Cup 2nd round: SAFC (3) 6 Exeter City (3) 3 Young hearts run free in second half
August 22 2015: SAFC (0) 1 Swansea City (1) 1 Gloom lifting after a more determined performance
August 15 2015: SAFC (0) 1 Norwich City (2) 3 I’ve seen some shockers in my time …
August 8 2015: Leicester City (3) 4 SAFC (0) 2 No encouragement to take from this shocker
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I thought that Newcastle had the best of the first half but could not put their chances away, which is a sure sign that the longer the game goes on the more chances we would get. It is all well and good playing ‘pretty’ football, but fluff your chances and the game has a nasty habit of biting you on the bum.
Full credit to the boys for coming out in the second half and stemming the flow from Newcastle’s midfield and a thoroughly deserved MOTM for M’Vila, who was excellent.
Interesting that in the pre-match build up that Nick Barnes had a conversation with Jermaine Defoe. When asked if Sam had had a conversation with him during the week, the answer was a straight ‘no’ so maybe all is not well there. Having said that I thought his work rate when he came on was superb and of course he played the ball into Fletcher that gave us a deserved penalty.
Much has been said about the dominance of NUFC and they did have more of the ball before we switchec to 4-4-2 but what did they do with it, did they every really look like scoring. Pants made one fabulous save but it was not a chance they created. It was in reality a very comfortable 3-0 it was a penalty and it was a red card no doubt. The claims of a shoulder charge are very weal. Fletcher was in front of the defender not running along side him and he was pushed in the back not shoulder to shoulder. Was it a scoring opportunity who knows but why would he push him if he thought it was going to the keeper, no the ref was right clearly.
Never saw that coming before the penalty ( nailed on) , thought we were going to lose to be honest.Fair play to the mags they never gave in but we had too much for them in total .Here’s to 7 in a row and yet more skunk misery. Do we ever get bored with beating them, do we hell .3-0 who’d have thought it, hmmm ? Ha !
You’d have thought it Drummer and you’ll get a mug to prove it!
Ta very much !
I’d take a fortunate win over an unfortunate defeat any day!
Did the job, although after the first 40 mins never thought that would come.
Icing on the cake would have Mr Johnstons thunderous drive.
FTM
FTM x 6.
“The Joy Of Six”. What a T shirt that will make!
ALS already have one on sale.
Prefer yours though.
Back in touch now and with teams like Norwich and Bournemouth in free fall, a win was essential. Clean sheet too and a healthier goal difference.
Not the greatest performance, three goals a clean shet and 3 points, what more can be said. It was a penalty it was a red card and it is a new record for consecutive derby wins. Historical if not classical. The result was more important than the performance.