The summer of 2007 heralded the next step of the magic carpet ride, and it potentially came quicker than the new owners and chairman Niall Quinn had expected.
Roy Keane entered the scene with the club sitting
bottom of the Championship and once the burners were put on full following the January transfer window we ended up in the Premier League as champions. Keane showed he meant business when there was no traditional bus parade through the city organised as he felt this was just the first step.
The new signings arrived, and the amount of money spent continued to rise throughout the summer, starting with £5m for Michael Chopra from Cardiff City. Kieran Richardson arrived from Manchester United, Dickson Etuhu from Norwich City, Paul McShane from West Brom and then there was the small matter of breaking multiple transfer records to secure the signature of Craig Gordon from Hearts.
The opening day of the season saw the Lads take on Spurs in front of the cameras to welcome Keane back to the Premier League and in terms of entertainment, we didn’t disappoint, with Chopra scoring the winner in the last minute of the game. Reality kicked in a little after collecting the first three points as we won one of the next eleven games which left us three places and one point above the drop.
Sam Allardyce’s Newcastle United were the next visitors to the Stadium of Light and although they began the day only five places above us in the table, they were eight points better off. Ahead of the game, Keane opted to throw Carlos Edwards back into the side after being out of action with a hamstring injury since August, while McShane returned to the side after suspension and Chopra and Ross Wallace also returned to the side.
Newcastle were in their light blue away colours rather than the traditional black and white that “reclusive” owner Mike Ashley was wearing in the away end. Keane’s side completely controlled the opening forty-five minutes and it began after only two minutes when Wallace should have given the home side the lead but he volleyed over the bar.
Danny Collins needed to come on from the bench to replace Nyron Nosworthy who suffered a hamstring injury, but it didn’t halt Sunderland’s dominance, with Grant Leadbitter forcing a save from Steve Harper and a minute later when he did beat Harper, Alan Smith cleared off the line.
Joey Barton was doing Joey Barton things in an effort to raise a response from his teammates – or just possibly to be a … well, Joey Barton – but it was goalless going into the break. Keane clearly had some words because we came out of the blocks and took the lead after a couple of minutes into the second half with Danny Higginbotham heading home, but this seemed to spark the visitors into life.
A few minutes after the hour mark a cross from James Milner seemed to deceive Gordon and ended up in the net off the far post to set up a grandstand finish. This began almost immediately when Kenwyn Jones missed a chance within seconds and in the later stages Michael Owen should have done better with a chance.
However, nine minutes from time Chopra could have finished it when he saw his header from an Ian Harte corner hit the bar which left Keane ruing a missed opportunity to win in his first derby:
We didn’t have that bit of luck today and we can talk all day about being unlucky but we keep getting these lessons in the Premier League and you have to take your chances.
We had chances to win the game and these things come back to haunt you. But if we keep performing like that, we’ll be okay. In terms of work-rate and performance we were different class. We worked extremely hard and I thought our performance was outstanding.
Premier League
Stadium of Light
Sunderland 1-1 Newcastle United
[Higginbotham 52’ – Milner 65’]
Sunderland: Gordon, McShane, Nosworthy (Collins), Higginbotham, Harte, Edwards, Leadbitter, Etuhu, Wallace (Stokes), Chopra, Jones Subs Not Used: Ward, Miller, Connolly
Newcastle United: Harper, Taylor, Faye (Beye 61), Rozehnal, N’Zogbia, Milner, Smith, Barton, Emre (Geremi), Owen (Martins), Viduka Subs Not Used: Forster, Jose Enrique
Attendance: 47,701
