I expect this article will not accumulate many reads in the North East of England as close to half of the population will be celebrating way into the night on the best deals from their local pub, painting the town red (and also white) whereas the other half will be buried deep beneath their shirts mumbling petulantly.
Five for Sorrow For Magpies
Along with Easter eggs, Easter Sunday also brought along the Wear-Tyne derby, which just like the chocolate, was a tasty affair between two teams who desperately craved the valuable three points. Newcastle were yearning the opportunity to rectify their abysmal recent derby form, considering their season barely has anything left to offer for them, the derby was indefinitely the most important fixture of the remainder of their season. Sunderland, on the contrary, were eager to make it five consecutive wins against their arch rivals whilst earning three points that could be crucial to their survival in the Premier League.
For the fifth consecutive time, there was only one team who undoubtedly wanted the spoils more and that was the team in red and white. First to every ball. Constantly winning aerial battles. The only team that ever posed a real threat to the opposition’s goal. It was the same old story for Newcastle who were once again overcome by the occasion.
For the majority of the first half an hour, the Newcastle penalty area was constantly raided by dead balls continuously launched into the box as Newcastle constantly kept conceding cheap free kicks. It was evident the pressure and occasion got to Newcastle in the first half as they could never manage to string a mere couple of passes together as they frantically kicked the ball away as if it was a ticking bomb about to explode at any moment. It was only until the 35th minute Newcastle managed to simply pass the ball across their back four.
The pressure was significantly more visible with the performance of Jack Colback, the man who made the brave move from Wearside to Tyneside in the summer, as he was always keen to get rid of the football as the boos echoed around the stadium every time came within a five metre radius of the football. Usually the most comfortable person on the football, Colback, although playing out of position at left back, he looked nervous when he had the ball, perhaps worried a flailing leg may catch him to the roar of the red and white stands. A day he would have imagined silencing the jeers of the Sunderland supporters was only to be one for the memory. It was only towards the final ten minutes when Newcastle finally looked interested in the match as they started to apply pressure to the Sunderland defence that he, along with his teammates, their mindset became totally focused on trying to break down the Sunderland defence and eventually got control of the occasion.
However, it was far too late to get back into the game as just before the stroke of halftime, Jermaine Defoe personally placed himself in Mackem folklore for decades with a volley of the highest calibre on the edge of the box. The game was lacklustre the final few minutes but as soon as Defoe made connection with the ball, the entire stadium erupted as a split-second later, the ball was nestling in the back of Tim Krul’s net. An absolute unstoppable strike that will never get boring to watch, even after the 100th replay, unless, of course, you are a Newcastle fan, worthy of a derby-day winner.
So why have Newcastle struggled so much in recent derbies?
Although they have finished ahead of Sunderland the last three seasons and are still above them this season, they have only won once in the last eight meetings, stemming back to August 2011, which would insinuate that Newcastle have had teams of better quality. Perhaps this is the reason why Sunderland have enthralled in the recent games because, of course, the gulf in class is very minimal as their standings in the league have always been a difference of a mere couple of places, excluding Newcastle’s arguably overachieving fifth placed season; it is because Sunderland have more pride at stake. As Newcastle have been having the bragging rights over their rivals on league form, Sunderland’s chance to try and even out the bragging rights have been in the derbies: they have been more motivated for the games because it has meant more to them. Although, they have been fighting off relegation previous seasons, to be able to have the upper hand in the derbies could be seen as a successful season for the Black Cats and that is what has probably given the Cats that extra gear in the derbies that has managed to push them to victory.
