Sunderland’s Asamoah Gyan scored deep into injury-time to deny local rivals Newcastle victory in a scrappy encounter at the Stadium of Light.
\nKevin Nolan gave the Magpies the lead in the second half when he backheeled Shola Ameobi’s goalbound header. But with little time remaining, Gyan equalised when Steve Harper’s save from Phil Bardsley shot rebounded off the striker and into the empty net. Both Ameobi and Sunderland forward Darren Bent had gone close earlier.
\nBoth those chances happened in the first few moments of a match that lacked much goalmouth action. This was partly due the swirling wind which was not conducive to precision passing and also due to the ‘passion first, football second’ nature of the derby match. Understandably Sunderland and Newcastle were hyped for their 132nd league meeting, but Steve Bruce’s Black Cats were also looking to settle a score, having been humiliated 5-1 at St James’ Park at the end of October.
\nAmeobi, who scored twice in Newcastle’s win, came close to adding to the pain in the third minute of the match when he placed his shot less that a foot wide of Sunderland’s left-hand post after he was fed in by a glorious 40-yard ball from Barton.
\nA few moments later the home side should have scored themselves, but Bent fired his close-range angled effort straight at the legs of Harper.
\nVolleys were exchanged again, when first Sunderland’s Kieran Richardson cleared Fabricio Coloccini’s shot off the line before Steed Malbranque, who had earlier played in Bent, tested the Newcastle number one with a fierce shot that had to be pushed away.
\nThere were several more mistimed tackles in the half than chances and Newcastle’s Alan Smith had to limp off in the opening half as a result of Richardson’s illegal attempt to win the ball. The second half was less of a scrappy affair and should have began with a Sunderland goal, but leading goalscorer Bent spurned another chance when he clipped Bardsley’s ball over Harper and past the keeper’s right-hand upright.
\nThat chance came four minutes after the restart – three minutes later, Newcastle took the lead.
\nRegular supply-line Barton played in another teasing corner which was headed on towards goal by the impressive Ameobi and flicked in by expert poacher Nolan. The Magpies deserved the lead and their resolute defence had quelled the threat of Sunderland’s attack for much of the match.
\nApart from Bent’s effort, the Black Cats’ only other attempt on goal before the equaliser came from the boot of Ahmed Elmohamady, whose 20-yard strike took a deflection off his own player Richardson and flew a foot wide.
\nBut Sunderland eyes welling up with tears of sadness turned to those of joy when in the fourth out of five minutes of stoppage time Gyan stood at the right place at the right time to save the home side from a fate worse than just losing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sunderland’s Asamoah Gyan scored deep into injury-time to deny local rivals Newcastle victory in a scrappy encounter at the Stadium of Light. Kevin Nolan gave the Magpies the lead in the second half when he backheeled Shola Ameobi’s goalbound header. But with little time remaining, Gyan equalised when Steve Harper’s save from Phil Bardsley shot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n