What I remember most about Newcastle United’s last home game against Sunderland – and what is says about the Tyne-Wear derby
Eddie Howe's side, knocked out of the Champions League in midweek by Barcelona, are looking to claim a first win in this fixture since October 2010.
It is almost 10 years to the day since the last Tyne-Wear derby at St James’ Park.
Newcastle United were in trouble the last time they faced Sunderland on home turf, with the season having unravelled steadily following the appointment of Steve McClaren in June 2015.
I was in the USA to cover the club’s pre-season tour in that summer, and there was a sense of optimism in the camp, and back home, at the time following some much-needed squad investment.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ahead of a game against Mexican side Club Atlas at Miller Park, the home of the city’s Major League Baseball team, one local newspaper referred to the city’s English visitors as one of the Premier League’s “most-storied” teams.
I know it is an Americanism, but that phrase has stuck with me. Certainly, those who report on the club are rarely short of a story.
A couple of weeks after the game in Milwaukee, which had ended in a 2-1 defeat, a friendly away to York City at their old Bootham Crescent ground hinted at what would follow in the season proper.
United again lost 2-1, and the team looked like it would struggle to score more goals away than it would concede at the other end of the pitch.
What happened the last time Sunderland visited St James’ Park
Fast forward to the visit of Sunderland on March 20, 2016, and the team was under new management, with McClaren having parted company with the club following a 3-1 home defeat to Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth which I described at the time as “shambolic”.
The team was 19th in the league, and running out of games. It did not look like it was too good to go down, despite the talent in the squad inherited by Rafa Benitez, McClaren’s successor.
Newcastle desperately needed a win, but they had to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw.
What I remember most from the match is not Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 83rd-minute equaliser – he cancelled out a first-half strike from Jermain Defoe with a with a towering back-post header set up by fellow summer signing Georginio Wijnaldum – but what happened in the minutes after the restart.
Mitrovic – who had been a boyhood United fan growing up in Serbia – suffered a head injury going for another ball into the box in the dying minutes, but was desperate to get back on the field.
Benitez could not make a substitution, as he had already made three changes, and concussion protocols meant that he could not return to the pitch. Mitrovic had to be physically restrained as he attempted to get back on the field.
So United had to see out a nerve-shredding game with just 10 men, no easy task. It was a fraught end to a fraught game.
But they did, and Mitrovic later apologised to the club’s doctor, Paul Catterson, for his actions.
Those emotional moments on the touchline underlined what was at stake that afternoon, and how much the game, and the result, mattered to a club which would ultimately be relegated for the second time under Mike Ashley’s ownership. Sunderland finished one place above them, and stayed up.
Mitrovic always had plenty of fight in him, and Newcastle will need to press high and contest everything on Sunday against a strong and capable visiting team has already exceeded expectations following its promotion last season.
Cool heads, though, will also be needed in the heat of the derby. Brains and brawn are needed.
This could be the best, or the worst, game for a team reeling from a 7-2 midweek Champions League defeat (8-3 on aggregate) to Barcelona. The scoreline over the two legs, of course, did not reflect the balance of play over the 120 minutes, but the team cannot dwell on that.
“The positives of this game for us can be huge, for the fans, for the city,” said Howe, United’s head coach, in his pre-match press conference.
A decade on from the last Tyne-Wear derby, there is not any relegation jeopardy for either club, but this game is still hugely-important for both teams and fanbases. United are out of the Champions League and the domestic cups, and ninth in the table, but there is still a lot to play for this season.
Newcastle have not beaten Sunderland at home since a 5-1 win in October 2010, though that statistic is skewed by the visitor’s eight-year spell out of the Premier League following their own relegation at the end of the 2016/17 season.
What is clear is that this game will have a major bearing on the narrative around this most storied of clubs between now and the end of the season.