On paper, it was blood and guts... but really only one team in Toon
Final say from the Stadium of Light
WHEN you’ve been at each other’s throats for almost 400 years, then a meeting in the FA Cup will always get the blood boiling.
Newcastle’s ruthlessness in preying on Sunderland mistakes proved to be the difference in this latest battle between the two North-east clans. The Premier League side never looked back after they went in front through Dan Ballard’s unfortunate own-goal 10 minutes before the end of a frenetic first half.
A calamitous error by Black Cats defender Ajibola Alese, which led to Alexander Isak firing Miguel Almiron’s pass into an empty net less than a minute after the break, then ensured there would be no giant-killing on the banks of the River Wear.
Sunderland were beaten well before Ballard’s nightmare continued with a last-minute bodycheck on Anthony Gordon, which allowed Isak to emphasise the gulf in class from
the penalty spot. If the watching nation had tuned in for a third-round spectacle they would have been disappointed. Or maybe pleasantly surprised.
This wasn’t the sanitised sanity of the Premier League. It was a crazy, old-fashioned scrap on the cobbles, a throwback to what the game used to be like.
There wasn’t even VAR to spoil the fun.
With quality in short supply on the pitch, the fans made sure it was still a game to get pulses racing. Every Sunderland tackle was cheered like an Ian Porterfield winner at Wembley.
Eddie Howe’s Newcastle side were just too streetwise to allow their rivals to get close enough to land a haymaker.
One bone-crunching collision between Sean Longstaff and Alese might have seen referee Craig Pawson make an inquiry to Stockley Park on another day.
This time it ended with Alese helping the Newcastle midfielder back to his feet.
More than a few Sunderland fans weren’t happy. The record
This wasn’t the sanitised sanity of the Premier League. It was a crazy, old-fashioned scrap on the cobbles, a throwback to what the game used to be like FA CUP FOURTH ROUND DRAW
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books say the first meeting of these two rivals was on Christmas Eve 1898.
But locals reckon the enmity stretches back to when the two cities were on opposing sides of the English Civil War.
More recently, a derby-day defeat prompted a Newcastle fan to punch a police horse outside St James’ Park.
The visitors paid a six-figure sum to bus their 6,000 travelling fans the 14 miles to the Stadium of Light. The local constabulary were out on the streets before dawn to keep the peace. The Toon Army turned the North Stand into a giant barcode.
At the final whistle, they formed the backdrop to a team photo as Howe’s victorious side milked the occasion for all it was worth.
The Newcastle boss will be a relieved man.
He has come under increasing pressure recently and getting knocked out of the FA Cup on Wearside would have added to his woes. Sunderland had been criticised for decorating one of the hospitality bars
reserved for visiting fans in black and white – and rightly so.
This was an FA Cup clash between two of English football’s fiercest rivals – not a tickling contest.
Some of the chants from the Sunderland supporters, it has to be said, weren’t the kind of thing the nation would want to hear over a lunchtime sandwich and pot of tea.
But, apart from a few disillusioned souls, they stayed until the bitter end.
How badly they had wanted to see their bitter rivals given a bloody nose.
A victory would have taken them ahead of Newcastle, with 54 wins in 157 meetings.
The famous Roker Park roar was back.
But Michael Beale’s men couldn’t give them something to get them off their seats other than total commitment.
Alex Pritchard clipped the bar with a shot from distance during a sustained spell of pressure – but Newcastle were already two goals up by then.