Former Cats keeper Sorensen on the day he outsmarted Shearer

‘A rare and extremely costly failure’.

That’s how one national newspaper recalls Alan Shearer’s dramatic penalty miss which, 20 years on, still provides happy memories for Sunderland fans.

The Black Cats were 2-1 up when a clumsy foul from Niall Quinn, who had previously netted to put his side in front, handed Shearer an opportunity to level from the spot with just eight minutes remaining.

Usually prolific, the Newcastle United star was denied as Thomas Sorensen sprung to his left to make a save that manager Peter Reid described as ‘magnificent’ – and helped his side to an important derby day triumph.

“He's normally deadly,' said theSunderlandmanageratthe time. “I thought we were headingforanexciting10minutesat the end, but Thomas pulled off amagnificentsave.Heshowed he's a top-class keeper.”

It’sasavethatSorensenstill remembers fondly.

“In the moment, it’s obviously part of the game,” he said,speakingtoOptusSports’ GegenPod. “It came late. Niall Quinn had worked his way back into our box and bundled one of the Newcastle players, I can’t remember who, over.

“There were about seven or eight minutes left and we were 2-1 up. Shearer was wellknown as a great penalty taker and I probably wasn’t given much chance of saving it. I tried to outsmart him and it worked.”

Not that the significance of his stop was realised by the Dane at the time.

“It’s funny in football. You can play for ten years and not be remembered or play for ten seconds and be remembered forever. That’s the game. Certainly,

that night has only grown in significance.

“In the game and after the game we were happy that we had won. But it very slowly hit me that it was a big moment for the Sunderland fans - because it was Shearer, because we won, and because we were back in the Premier League.

“Thatwroteitintothehistorybooks,andthat’sanicething to have twenty years on.”

*Michael O'Neill has steppeddownasNorthernIreland manager after eight and a half years in the role.

A mutual decision was madeforO'Neilltoleavehisposition due to proposed revised international match schedulingbyUEFAinlightofthecoronavirus pandemic. O'Neill was named Stoke boss in November, but remained in charge of Northern Ireland in order to see out the Euro 2020 qualification process.