I am going to copy what a friend of mine did when we won at St James' Park in April! Sunderland 2-1 Newcastle, Sunderland 2-1 Newcastle! Want to hear it one more time? Ok, Sunderland 2-1 Newcastle!
That was only directed at anti-Sunderland toon supporters so I apologise for that and before they come out with the "oh but you are still in the relegation zone" arguement, I would like to point out just how more embarssing it is for Newcastle to be beaten by a bottom club! Phew... glad that's off my chest!
Now down to business. I said when Gus Poyet was appointed that he has a very good record against Newcastle and, thankfully for us mackems, it proved the case in the Wear-Tyne derby at the Stadium of Light yesterday. There is an early Halloween present for the Geordies!
Owner Ellis Short admitted that he made a mistake in appointed Poyet's predecessor, Paolo Di Canio and to an extent I agree with him. While Di Canio lost the dressing room, making it almost impossible to progress forward with the club, I will still remember him for the derby win over Newcastle in April and I think a lot of Sunderland fans should do the same.
It is safe to say Sunderland's start to the season has been, to put it nicely and without swearing my head off, disappointing! I mentioned when Di Canio was sacked that I was getting tired of always having modest expectations of a mid-table/top 10 finish consistently and nearly always being disappointed.
There have been games where we have been robbed of a result, the home games against Fulham, Arsenal and Manchester United come into mind here. But there have also been games where we have been poor to say the least, such as Crystal Palace, West Brom and Swansea away.
So if Sunderland's season was to have a dramatic turn around, then we needed to win the derby and when I saw Newcastle's team, I thought we had no chance. With Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Loic Remy in your team, you always have a good chance of scoring.
My case was not helped when I saw that John O'Shea and Carlos Cuellar were paired up in central defence as they are not the quickest of defenders.
But, in all fairness to them, they mostly kept Newcastle at bay and restricted them to long range shots so they handled their task brilliantly.
Many have praised Jack Colback in midfield and I couldn't agree more! He bossed Cabaye and Tiote and kept things flowing. To cap it all off, he played a part in setting up Fabio Borini's late winner.
But, as a whole, this was by far Sunderland's best performance this season and even if we do go down, there is at least one highlight from this term.
Taking the lead after five minutes when Steven Fletcher headed home was exactly what we needed to settle everyone down.
And while Newcastle dominated possession for much of the half, we didn't let them do much with it. If there was one negative in the first half it's that, apart from the goal and a Fletcher shot at Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul, I do not remember Sunderland having any attempts on target so that is something we will still need to work on.
While I was happy with how things were going at half-time, I was also skeptical. Against Man Utd a few weeks ago we were the better team in the first-half and were 1-0 up at half-time. But because we put so much energy into the first-half we didn't produce in the second-half and ended up losing 2-1.
Nevertheless, at the start of the second-half we continued to press forward and look for a second goal. But through their first real attack in the second-half on 57 minutes, Mathieu Debuchy equalised for Newcastle.
Even though Adam Johnson set up Fletcher's opener, he let the french full-back run past and get away from him FAR too easily and he will need to work on his defensive qualities in future.
At that point, I am sure I am not alone when I say I was fearing the worst. Usually when we have conceded in games, as evident last week, we capitulate and concede more goals.
Thankfully, this time we actually responded and continued to battle through the nervy next 15-20 minutes.
I was sure at that stage in the match that Newcastle would go on to win as the momentum seemed to be with them so I was all the more surprised when Borini struck with just over five minutes of ordinary time remaining.
And what a worthy strike it was to win any match, let alone a derby! The way he just powered the ball towards the top right corner from just outside the penalty area made it nearly impossible for Krul to stop.
And so the Stadium of Light goes wild as we celebrate a second successive Tyne-Wear derby win.
I have never felt so happy for a lad than Fabio Borini. He has had a torrid first year or so in the Premier League with Liverpool and while on loan at Sunderland he comes on and he scores the derby winner. I nearly teared up watching his celebration as I could clearly see just how much it meant to him.
And even though all of the players were fantastic, I want to give Jozy Altidore a mention as he worked tremendously hard and give Newcastle's back four constant problems all afternoon.
So what does this mean for Sunderland AFC? Does it mean we will finally turn the corner and stay up? Will Gus Poyet go down the same route as Paolo Di Canio despite both managers getting a derby win in their second game in charge?
The answer to all of those questions is time will tell.
While beating Newcastle (again) is a great game in which to get your first win, it does, to a degree, paper over the cracks. We are still yet to keep a clean sheet this season and prior to yesterday, we had only scored one goal per game, assuming we score at all so there is still much to be improved on.
But what this result will do is give the players confidence they can start winning games and shooting up the table and hopefully stay up. This result, however, will mean nothing if we have to wait five or six games for the next win. Hull away is a hard fixture but it is one which we can win and if we do win, it will hopefully push us further in the right direction.
We are not out of trouble yet as we are still four points off safety but we are off the bottom which is a start. There is also still a LONG way to go in the rest of the season and let us enjoy the win while we can.
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