Eddie Howe is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, manager outwitted by Régis Le Bris this season but few are likely to find the experience quite as painful.
Losing this most febrile of local derbies is a big deal and in past seasons has prompted Ruud Gullit and, later, Alan Pardew to swiftly relinquish their posts as Newcastle manager. Howe has far too much credit in the bank to contemplate such a notion, but a reverse sealed by Nick Woltemade’s spectacular headed own goal was still intensely chastening for a coach whose side never really got going.
A game of few chances left the promoted Sunderland seventh, four points and five places ahead of local rivals who could struggle to achieve their aim of Champions League qualification once more next season. Their European exertions in this campaign are taking a considerable toll, with Newcastle’s ultra intense style arguably too exhausting to be deployed twice a week.
The Stadium of Light has one of the largest press boxes in the Premier League but, for once, every seat was taken. Arabic, Bulgarian and Japanese were among the languages spoken in the media areas as 12 international broadcasters from across the world set up camp.
Yet if north-east England and its football clubs were firmly back on the map, this also remained an intensely parochial affair. Newcastle had even brought a special plaque with them and pinned it up above their dressing‑room door. “Get into them,” was the message but, before the sound and the fury erupted, Sunderland fans took time to remember their former striker Gary Rowell.
To say Rowell, who died on Saturday of leukaemia at the age of 68, exactly 50 years since he made his Sunderland debut, remained a cult hero on Wearside is an understatement. It is a very long time since February 1979 when Rowell scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win at Newcastle, but that feat will never be forgotten and the minute’s applause in his memory before kick-off redefined the word evocative.
Rowell was a king of half‑chance conversion but even he might have struggled on Sunday as Newcastle sat deep and ceded possession. Neither goalkeeper was tested during a cagey first half controlled by Sunderland.
Howe had given his players a day off on Friday after their return from the midweek Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen, but that rest did not seem to have had the desired effect as they struggled to escape their own half. Once again Sandro Tonali was strangely subdued in midfield while Lewis Miley, preferred to Joelinton, failed to seize his chance.
Newcastle’s manager had stressed precisely the importance of correctly calibrating his team’s “arousal levels” but, despite that “get into them” plaque, they looked under-stimulated.
In contrast Sunderland’s outstanding right‑back Nordi Mukiele needed to mind his step after being booked for a late challenge on Dan Burn that necessitated the England defender’s replacement with Fabian Schär. Burn was taken to hospital for rib X-rays. Brian Brobbey, too, rode his luck and was possibly fortunate to escape a second yellow card for a foul on Miley.
Newcastle’s Woltemade had found himself horribly isolated but at the outset of the second half the Germany centre‑forward stepped out of the shadows into blindingly painful limelight. When Mukiele crossed from the right, Woltemade responded with a superb header. Yet instead of the intended clearance behind, it arced over Aaron Ramsdale and into the back of the net via the underside of the crossbar. Small wonder the £69m striker always insists he prefers the ball to his feet.
As the scoreboard lit up with the message: Sunderland 1 Visitors 0, Le Bris’s decision to revert from a back five to a 4-2-3-1 formation was paying dividends. This configuration featured Enzo Le Fée in a deep-lying No 10 role and he played an important part in cramping Tonali’s style in a central department dictated largely by Xhaka. Anthony Gordon, meanwhile, was marginalised by Mukiele.
Tellingly, more than an hour had passed before Howe’s side managed their first effort on target when Bruno Guimarães shot tepidly at Robin Roefs.
With Le Bris’s substitutes now enabling Sunderland to drop into 5-4-1 when defending, Howe was running out of switches to flick and buttons to press but, as the clock ticked down, an on‑pitch scuffle erupted near the centre circle and spread to the touchline – like most of Newcastle’s play, it came to nothing.
All that remained was for Sunderland to mock their guests by taking a team picture on the pitch after the final whistle. That represented revenge for the same exercise undertaken by Howe’s assistant, Jason Tindall, when his team won 3-0 at the Stadium of Light in the FA Cup almost two years ago.
It left Newcastle’s manager looking as if he had just undergone excruciating root canal dental surgery without an anaesthetic.
