Black Cats’ boss Martin O’Neill was delighted to secure a point in the 146th Tyne-&-Wear derby, even if his side played against 10 men for over an hour.
Yohan Cabaye swept Newcastle United into a 1-0 lead after just three minutes and it took the sending-off of Cheick Tiote in the 24th minute to hand the lads a route back into the game.
An own-goal from Demba Ba in the 86th minute was Sunderland’s reward for their hard graft, even if guile was not alway on show.
Speaking afterwards to safc.com O’Neill said of the point:
“I`m delighted we came away with something from the game and that we didn`t get beaten.
“However, I felt that when Newcastle went down to 10 men we should have taken a minute or two to think about it, instead of getting anxious about it,’ admitted the Ulsterman.
“In the final third we were quite clumsy, we could have done better and we should have created a few more opportunities.”
Magpies boss Alan Pardew had his two penneth on the result, telling BBC Sport that the red card was harsh on Tiote:
‘I know Cheick and he’s not tried to do the player.
‘He has just caught him and Martin Atkinson has deemed it a red card. I thought the fourth official had a part to play in it because I don’t think Martin could have seen it.’
Pardew continued by likening returning skipper Fabricio Coloccini’s performance to that of the late Bobby Moore:
‘I come from a famous club at West Ham United after being manager there.
Coloccini was back in the Newcastle side after a three game absence
‘And that was like watching Bobby Moore. It was that good,’ said a straight-faced Pardew.
Sunderland face a trip to Stoke City next weekend.
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