Premier League preview: Newcastle v Sunderland
For reasons unknown, some Newcastle United fans have been openly critical of boss Chris Hughton recently. Win here though, and Hughton won’t have to buy a drink on Tyneside again.
It’s the Tyne-Wear derby, the fixture that all Geordies looked forward to upon their promotion back to the Premier League, and it is safe to assume that all Sunderland fans were keeping an eye out for too. Ten-and-a-half miles and a whole lot of attitude separate these two, and it’s about to get heated on Halloween. Frighteningly so.
“This will be different to any derby I've played in – I know it will,” said Magpies winger Wayne Routledge, who can call upon the experience of several London derbies and the South Wales skirmish between Cardiff City and Swansea in his varied career that has already taken in eight clubs.
“Nothing can live with the Tyne-Wear derby. You only have to play in a regular league game to see that – the fans are so up for the games it's unbelievable.
“It'll be like no other derby. Everything about it will be different, the stadium, the atmosphere, and even what the fans are like before and after the game. There will be a real atmosphere in the city on the day, and nobody can even try to escape from it.
“It'll be a much more passionate game, and I think that passion will be spilling out everywhere. As a player, that's what you look forward to, and all of the lads can't wait.”
All of the lads appear to rightly be behind Hughton too, at least that what their captain says.
“No matter what happens on Sunday we are going to still be 110 per cent behind Chris Hughton,” said Kevin Nolan, a goalscorer in last weekend’s impressive 2-1 win at West Ham.
“I think the talk is absolutely ridiculous on him having to win a game to stay in his job, it is absolutely ridiculous. No matter what we want to see Chris Hughton in charge of us and we believe we are going in the right way with him in charge of us.”
All well, good and correct, but Hughton must know that he can put the rumours to bed with a win over Newcastle’s greatest rivals on Sunday, not that that will be easy – the Sunderland players know their derby day clichés too, and so they are predictably “up for it.”
“I've played in this derby before,” said full back Phil Bardsley, “and I know it's a fantastic occasion. Nothing beats playing in a derby.
“It'll be down to who turns up, handles the big atmosphere and performs on the day. Hopefully, we'll do that.
“We've a solid-looking team and I think the squad is a lot stronger this season. Three clean sheets on the bounce and seven unbeaten says it all, and long may it continue.”
If it is to continue here, then Steve Bruce – a boyhood Newcastle fan – will really have earned his place in the hearts of the Mackems fans.
He’ll know all about this derby, and about the rivalry that can perhaps best be summed up by Sunderland’s decision to ban boisterous Newcastle fans from a crumbling Roker Park for a clash in 1996, due to the damage that they might have inflicted upon the ground. Newcastle then chose not to allow Sunderland fans into the return match at their top-notch St James’ Park stadium, simply because they could.
These days the Mackems play at the Stadium of Light, where Richard Dunne’s own goal gave them a fortuitous win over Aston Villa last time out, a victory that pushed Bruce’s side up to seventh in the table. It is this one that really matters though, and of course they know it.
“There's no denying what it means to people from the area,” said Bruce, who is certainly qualified to say so. “It's the first game fans and players look for and thankfully it's nearly here. All the hype comes with it. We're all looking forward to this occasion.
“The big thing in big games, they can turn into a damp squib if you forget there's a game of football to play and don't handle the occasion. You need you big players to turn up and produce in what's an electric occasion.”
And so with the derby cliché list nearly filled, attention turns to the match itself.
It will be frenzied, frantic and furious, and home advantage could just prove telling for the Magpies in what could prove the defining moment of Hughton’s tenure.
He wants a win, and his players want it for him.
That, with all of the talking finally over, could prove decisive.
Prediction: Newcastle 1 Sunderland 0
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