Derby Day Is Looming — Bring It On!
“For both teams, this is the biggest game of the remainder of the season,” writes Paddy Hollis.
It’s been a very long time since Sunderland visited St James’ Park — almost ten years to the day, in fact, since a 1-1 draw when Newcastle ended a six-game losing run against the Lads. A lot has happened in the last decade. We’ve been down to the third tier and come back again; they sold their souls to win one League Cup and then go back to losing derbies, but Sunday could be fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.
When it comes to Newcastle, we’ve had to put up with a hell of a lot of insults over the last decade. I’m all for it. I think it’s one of the brilliant things that make this derby one of the best in the county.
Bias aside, it’s better and far more passionate than the likes of the Manchester or North London derbies, but fanatical supporters on either side play a big part in that. Derby day for ourselves and those up the road is huge, and most Newcastle fans wouldn’t write it off as a ‘lesser game’ since the takeover — although you get the impression that there are fans who don’t feel this way. There’ll be a good atmosphere in place on Sunday, but you wouldn’t expect anything different.
We turned the Stadium of Light into a cauldron in December, and it paid off. We’ll get the same treatment and it’s all about standing up to it and making sure we get in their faces more than they did to us last year. Sunderland and the Premier League were, for a good while, a match made in hell.