Sunderland beat their bitter rivals 1-0 with a late Adam Johnson in a highly competitive game.
The first half was quite eventful, as to be expected from such a big match between this two bitter rivals. Referee Anthony Taylor had to pull out his yellow card five times, showing that both sides were fully up for the test ahead.
Sunderland almost scored on multiple occasions early on in the first half.
Conor Wickham was almost given a gift by unexperienced goalkeeper Jak Alnwick as he almost latched onto a poor throw from Alnwick, however he was just prevented from reaching it by the intercepting Fabricio Coloccini.
Minutes later, Wickham almost had the ball in the back of the net, glancing a whipped Adam Johnson cross just wide of the goal.
The Newcastle goal was under a lot pressure as Sunderland continued to look threatening on the attack. Sebastian Larsson caught out the Newcastle defence with a brilliant lobbed through-ball which was met on the volley by Steven Fletcher, whose stretched volley could only rebound off the crossbar.
The last dangerous chance of the second half fell to Wickham again with a 20-yard strike which Alnwick got down well to save despite a nervous start from the youngster.
Alan Pardew will have gone into half-time feeling fortunate that his side were not made to pay for their poor defensive display. Whereas, Gus Poyet will have felt frustrated that his side were not clinical enough in front of goal.
Five minutes into the second half, Newcastle fans were left worrying as a piece of magnificent defending from Steven Taylor prevented Fletcher from putting Sunderland ahead, which consequently led to Taylor colliding with the post. The defender would have to go off and would require many stitches to his head, but he'd eventually return to action after a visit to the changing rooms five minutes after the collision.
However, Newcastle almost conceded whilst down to 10-men for that short period, as Jordi Gómez sliced a magnificent chance just wide of the goal.
Players started to tire and the game started to open up as the game progressed into the last 30 minutes.
Sunderland keeper Costel Pantilimon made a terrific save to deny a thunderous strike from Ayoze Pérez.
Chances kept coming for both sides, and a goal seemed iminent however it could have easily been from either side. Adam Johnson came agonisingly close to putting Sunderland ahead, after selling Coloccini with a fake shot but he was only able to drag his eventual shot wide of the goal.
Newcastle continued to pile the pressure on as the game looked to head into a hefty amount of stoppage time, but Pantilimon was in fantastic form as he made even more great saves to prevent Newcastle from scoring. Just before stoppage time, Sunderland caught Newcastle on the counter and in a move that was started by Johnson was eventually finished off with a vicious volley by the winger.
Minutes later, Larsson could've guarenteed the win, but he only found the side-netting after taking the ball round goalkeeper Alnwick. Newcastle were unable to find an equaliser in the remaining minutes and Sunderland came away with the three points moving them up 14th in the league table. Whereas, Newcaslte remained in ninth place on 23 points.