Editorial: Derby Delight!

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - MARCH 22: Sunderland's Luke O'Nien celebrates at the end of the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Sunderland at St James' Park on March 22, 2026 in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. (Photo by Lee Parker - CameraSport via Getty Images) | CameraSport via Getty Images Leading up to Sunday’s game, all of the talk centred around which of our injured players might be available, and it ended up becoming a bit of a distraction from what was actually important: the players who were definitely fit to play their part. Whilst I’m sure Régis Le Bris would have loved to have had a fully fit squad at his disposal, he’s not daft enough to get too distracted by the possibilities of having several of his walking wounded involved at the last minute.

Instead, he had to work on a gameplan that didn’t involve any of them, and that meant that in most cases the Lads who did pass their late fitness tests were only ever destined for a spot on the bench. That was absolutely crucial. It meant that whilst Newcastle were distracted by European football, we were on the training ground, figuring out how we were going to walk into St James’ Park empty-handed and walk back out with three points.

What we saw was, yet again, Le Bris at his brilliant best. The tinkerman got it spot on once more. His counterpart in the opposition dugout had no answers to what Sunderland had to offer, and the longer the game went on, you just knew there was only going to be one team capable of winning it.

To a man, Sunderland’s players were outstanding. They all played their part. Despite the massive early setback he and we suffered, I thought Luke O’Nien was absolutely fantastic, and the fact he got on with his job when others probably would have wilted spoke volumes of the type of man he is, and the mental resilience he’s built up so that he’s able to rebound quickly from misfortune.