Leading up to Sunday’s game, all of the talk centred around which of our injured players might be available, and it ended up becoming a bit of a distraction from what was actually important: the players who were definitely fit to play their part.
Whilst I’m sure Régis Le Bris would have loved to have had a fully fit squad at his disposal, he’s not daft enough to get too distracted by the possibilities of having several of his walking wounded involved at the last minute. Instead, he had to work on
a gameplan that didn’t involve any of them, and that meant that in most cases the Lads who did pass their late fitness tests were only ever destined for a spot on the bench.
That was absolutely crucial. It meant that whilst Newcastle were distracted by European football, we were on the training ground, figuring out how we were going to walk into St James’ Park empty-handed and walk back out with three points.
What we saw was, yet again, Le Bris at his brilliant best. The tinkerman got it spot on once more. His counterpart in the opposition dugout had no answers to what Sunderland had to offer, and the longer the game went on, you just knew there was only going to be one team capable of winning it.
To a man, Sunderland’s players were outstanding. They all played their part.
Despite the massive early setback he and we suffered, I thought Luke O’Nien was absolutely fantastic, and the fact he got on with his job when others probably would have wilted spoke volumes of the type of man he is, and the mental resilience he’s built up so that he’s able to rebound quickly from misfortune. Granit Xhaka was back to his best and ran the midfield, ably flanked by Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra. The two boys on the wings, Talbi and Rigg, didn’t put a foot wrong – Talbi was a goal threat throughout, and Rigg did what many others haven’t been able to do all season, and he kept Lewis Hall quiet down their left-hand side. And then, up front, I thought Brian Brobbey was absolutely outstanding, and fully deserving of his moment at the end. He ragdolled the Newcastle defence throughout, and then when we needed him to be sharp, his movement in the box was fantastic and he scored the crucial winner.
Can you imagine being a Newcastle fan after that, though? They’ve now lost two games against a team they told everyone they’d flatten at the start of the season, and on both occasions, they simply haven’t turned up.
Where does their arrogance actually come from? Before the match all I seemed to see were mags telling everyone that they were going to trounce us. Even after the game, Anthony Gordon was a sore loser and was captured on camera telling their club’s media team that he thought Sunderland aren’t a good team, and that they’re better than us. This comes after being beaten easily by us home and away, in a season where they have spent the majority of it below us in the table. Maybe if Newcastle’s players and fans were more honest with themselves they’d discover the real reason why they’ve gone fifteen years without beating us in a league game.
As much as I love gloating about derby wins, I won’t spend too much time talking about them though. It’s all about these players and this coach, and they’ve given us so many unbelievable memories over the last 12 months. This is the best time I’ve ever known to be a Sunderland supporter, and the best part is that the journey isn’t over yet. After the international break we’ve got a run of games where, if we can raise our levels again, we could be talking about a top-half finish – and wouldn’t that just be sweet?
The break actually feels well-timed. Not only do we get to crow over beating the mags for just that little bit longer, but it gives our squad the chance to breathe, to reflect, and for the injured lads to get themselves back fit for the run-in. I’m going to revel in this for as long as I can, because we’ve bloody earned it. When I was watching us lose to the likes of Cheltenham and Burton Albion in League One, I could only dream of the feeling of beating Newcastle in a league game again, so we really shouldn’t take these moments for granted.
Just ask any mag, as they haven’t seen their team beat us in the Premier League since 2011!
