Newcastle 1-2 Sunderland: Late Brobbey goal gives Sunderland victory in Tyne-Wear Derby | OneFootball

The 159th meeting between the two sides was a tight affair where chances were few and far between for both sides. Newcastle started the brighter of the teams in the first half, and led through Anthony Gordon’s early strike. Sunderland, however, were much improved in the second, and Chemsdine Talbi levelled the game before Brian Brobbey struck late to give the visitors all three points in the Tyne-Wear Derby.

As it happened

The first chance of the derby fell to the hosts. After his brace in Barcelona, Anthony Elanga came close to his first Premier League goal for Newcastle as he headed over after a great ball in from Lewis Hall.

With nine minutes on the clock, the deadlock was broken by Newcastle after a gift from Sunderland. Luke O’Nien was caught trying to play out from the back, his pass was intercepted and fell to Anthony Gordon who fired past Melker Ellborg in the Sunderland goal to send the home fans into raptures early on.

Sunderland’s only early opening came through Chemsdine Talbi, who with space in front of him, tried to curl the ball into the top right hand corner, forcing Aaron Ramsdale into a fine save to tip it wide.

The game did find a bit of life after the half an hour mark, with both teams having half chances. Noah Sadiki’s cross was nicely dummied by Brian Brobbey, but Chris Rigg’s effort was well blocked. At the other end, Newcastle broke quickly with Nick Woltemade finding Elanga on the left side of the box, but the Swede’s weak footed effort could only find the side netting.

Newcastle came close to doubling their lead minutes before the break, with Sven Botman bulleting a header off the post after Hall found him with another brilliant pick out from the left.

Sunderland had the first effort on target of the second half, as Rigg’s strike was saved at the near post by Ramsdale in the Newcastle net.

From the resulting corner, the visitors levelled at St James’ Park. The Newcastle goalkeeper failed to get any distance on his punch and the ball fell to Trai Hume who fired back towards goal. Brobbey’s chested effort was cleared off the line by Dan Burn but Talbi reacted first and fired home to level the derby.

Sunderland continued to knock on the door and nearly took the lead in the game, but Sadiki’s effort from inside the box was straight at Ramsdale who easily parried it away.

Newcastle thought they had retaken the lead through substitute Malick Thiaw, but it was ruled that Jacob Murphy was interfering with the goalkeeper from an offside position and the goal was disallowed.

The hosts, looking re-energised after the introduction of their substitutes, came close through goalscorer Gordon, who cut inside onto his right foot but fired high over the bar.

With just under 90 minutes on the clock, Brobbey scored his sixth goal of the season to win all three points for Sunderland at their great rivals. Sadiki slid the ball into Enzo Le Fée who picked out Brobbey in the six-yard box, his first effort was kept out by Ramsdale but he could not miss the second and he fired home, winning the Tyne-Wear Derby in the process.

Newcastle Analysis

Newcastle will be scratching their heads wondering how they lost control of a game they were so dominant of in the first half. After Anthony Gordon’s early goal, and the Newcastle dominance that followed, it was easy to assume that the hosts would stroll to a comfortable victory. However, that was most certainly not the case.

Newcastle came out after the break, were sloppy in their passing, and gave the initiative to Sunderland who took it willingly. Not only did they lose all of the attacking threat they had, but defensively they were giving up far too many openings and it wasn’t long before they were punished for that by Chemsdine Talbi.

Newcastle did seem to get a bit of a lift with fresh legs from the bench, and there were a couple of good openings for Anthony Gordon who failed to test Melker Ellborg with any of them. But again, the lack of control for the hosts was punished again by Sunderland in the end by Brian Brobbey’s late goal.

The result sees The Magpies fall to 12th in the table, and below their rivals. And after crashing out of the Champions League midweek, this result will only ramp up the pressure on manager Eddie Howe, who will be desperate for his side to recalibrate over the international break, and not let their season sizzle out.

Sunderland Analysis

Sunderland’s second half performance was a vast improvement on their first, where they struggled to get any foothold in the game, and allowed Newcastle to dominate.

Whatever Régis Le Bris said to his side at half time worked a treat however, as they came out a completely different team. In the second half alone, they created an XG of 2.26, compared to their 0.19 created in the first half. It was also far more than the 0.44 that Newcastle generated in the second period.

The result helps pull Sunderland well clear of the relegation battle that their poor form was seeing them slip closer towards. It also makes it back to back away wins in the Premier League for Sunderland, totalling to half of their total away wins in the league this season. It sees them climb above their rivals up to 11th place in the table, putting the Black Cats just three points off the European places, and just six behind 5th place Liverpool.

There is still a lot to play for this season for Sunderland, and their fans will be hoping that after the international break, they can build on this result and look more at the teams above them, rather than those below.