Jonny Hawley: SAFC 2-1 NUFC, 2013
In a crowded field, Poyet’s first derby is right up near the top of my personal list – it’s no Richardson free kick, obviously, but I absolutely loved that game.
I’d have just turned 15 not long before
the match, so I was in that sweet spot in life where I had near-endless free time to sink into football, but was just about old enough to really understand the emotional weight of what we were seeing.
The game itself is a bit strange to look back on, because for the vast majority I remember it looking pretty similar to any other game – no leg-breakers, no refereeing drama, not much to tell you the scale of the occasion other than the deafening volume of the crowd. Certainly it wasn’t marked by controversy like certain other derbies…
Steven Fletcher’s opener was unremarkable as well; a stood-up cross to the back stick and a nod down from a couple of yards. Perfect start to the game, but nothing to etch into folklore. Maybe something to brighten up our awful start to the season, though.
My overriding memory of their equaliser is knowing I’d be able to hear their f***ing away end singing ‘DE-BU-CHY’ like I was sat right there for weeks – as we’re 12 years on and I can hear it like it was yesterday, I think it’s safe to say I underestimated it! It felt so deflating – hardly a stunner, and we weren’t being hammered, but it just felt like more of the same dross we’d been serving up for months.
Sat in the East Stand that day, you could have offered me a million quid to pick a potential game-winning hero and I’d have got nowhere near it. Because of everything that followed, it’s hard to remember quite how little any of us rated Fabio Borini before that day. Did Poyet picture what was coming in his mind when he sent the Italian on? I’d suggest not.
Then came the quick free kick (taken with a rolling ball, by the way). Then came Altidore’s – ehem – lay-off. Then came Borini’s stunner.
I’m not even gonna bother describing it – we all remember. But sat in front of the recording of the game on Sky Sports the next morning, videoing the goal on my phone, it started to dawn on me that we’d just beaten them, in front of my eyes, with a howitzer from range and there was nothing they could ever do to take it away from us.
That’s a feeling I replicated each and every of the 1000+ times I sat and rewatched that grainy, out-of-focus video on my phone. Cheers Gus and Fabs!
Lee Morrison: NUFC 0-1 SAFC, 2014
Personally, the one stand out Derby memory is Defoe’s ridiculous volley at home and the celebrations that spilled over into half time.
Alas, I’m not reflecting on that game. Instead, I get to talk about a game that you won’t often see being referred to. One that certainly doesn’t get posted by the club’s social media pages as we near the 11th anniversary. It was Newcastle United 0 – 1 Sunderland in December 2014.
For me, the last minute winner is synonymous with an ill judged YouTube upload from a Newcastle fan. In incredibly grainy footage captured on a Nokia 3210, the fan in question aims to immortalise himself by recording a winning Newcastle Corner in the dying minutes.
What transpired was quite different.
The grainy footage, for me, is actually a blessing in disguise, as I’m almost unable to see which player finishes the brilliant breakaway chance… What I do remember, though, are the scenes from that away end and the image of Gus Poyet that is immortalised – arms aloft to the away end up in the gods as we realise that it’s the fourth successive win against our horrible neighbours.
What can we take away from it now? It was a bit of a hint to the “Til The End” mantra that encompasses this team. That the game isn’t over until the whistle blows and just how much the result matters to the team, management and fans.
Gav Henderson: NUFC 0-3 SAFC, 2014
For me, this was the best and most complete Sunderland derby performance in my lifetime.
Not only did we beat them, but we absolutely mullered them, and in their own back yard to boot.
Not once in that ninety minute performance were Newcastle in control of the game. This was Poyet’s gameplan at its finest, led and orchestrated by the debuting Liam Bridcutt at the base of Sunderland’s midfield.
I imagine for mag supporters this was the most embarrassed that they’ve felt after a derby loss, because there could be no arguing with how the game played out. In truth, they were lucky we didn’t score five or six.
In my chat today with Gus he beamed with pride about that particular showing from his team – it was outstanding, and at the end of the game when he was left in the stadium he looked up at the Sunderland fans, understood what it meant to them to have played in the way we did, and was so unbelievably proud.
