Sunderland 3 – 0 Newcastle United
ADAM JOHNSON’s first half penalty helps Sunderland record their first win of the season and climb off the bottom of the table.
After Fabricio Coloccini was given his marching orders Johnson put The Black Cats ahead before goals from Billy Jones and Steven Fletcher sealed the win.
Newcastle remain in the relegation zone behind Sunderland as they extend their losing streak to 8 games in Tyne-Wear derbies.
Sam Allardyce has never lost his opening Premier League home game in charge of a club, but it was Newcastle who started the brightest of the two sides.
Coloccini had an early chance to put the Magpies ahead when his volley resulted into a Costel Pantilimon save.
Sunderland failed to record a single shot in the first 10 minutes but at the other end Newcastle were creating plenty and dominating possession.
Firstly, Georginio Wijnaldum played a clever one-two with Aleksandar Mitrovic before forcing Pantilimon into a save.
Jack Colback then gathered the ball on the edge of the area and saw his free shot at goal go wide.
In the 45th minute, Newcastle felt hard done by after referee Robert Madley waved away a penalty appeal after Lee Cattermole looked to have handled the ball in the Sunderland area.
Moments later, it got much worse for Newcastle as Madley awarded Sunderland a penalty and issued Coloccini a red-card after he bundled over Fletcher despite keeper Rob Elliot collecting the ball.
Johnson scored the resulting penalty which now puts him as joint top-goalscorer for Sunderland in Tyne-Wyre Derby’s.
In the 55th minute, Ayoze Perez’s shot was blocked by Cattermole and found its way to the feet of Mitrovic who cut the ball back onto his right foot before firing a shot at the Sunderland goal which was stopped superbly by Pantilimon.
At the other end, Sunderland were looking like a completely different team from the first half and were creating plenty of chances to double their lead.
Steven Fletcher came close in the 66th minute when his shot deflected and went narrowly wide.
From the resulting corner, Sunderland doubled their lead after Yann M’Vila was unmarked st the back post and allowed to have a free volley at goal, which looked to be going in, but Billy Jones was there to tap-in to make it certain.
That second goal gave Sunderland a great boost and the Black Cats began to turn on the style.
Johnson was the latest Sunderland player to trouble Elliot in the Newcastle goal when he cut onto his left foot and watched his 25-yard strike rattle the crossbar.
To add to Newcastle’s misery, Fletcher sealed the win with a super volley from a Sunderland counter-attack and left Sunderland with the bragging rights.
