Sunderland missed out on the chance to do the double over the Mags for the first time in 42 years after Howard Webb decided that he was actually a closet Newcastle United fan and gave them penalty for getting the ball in the box.

After our glorious 2-1 win back in October, we went into the match in confident mood following our win over Fulham and their recent run of poor form and spate of injuries. Pre-match rumours that Anton may miss out with injury proved unfounded, as he came through and kept his place at centre-back.

Two changes were made, Carlos Edwards and the returning from injury Kieran Richardson both came in, replacing Teemu Taino and Andy Reid. Steed Malbranque moved over to the left, with Carlos patrolling the right, and we went there with an attacking 4-4-2 line-up, unlike last years effort which saw one up front and Reid trying to bomb forward hopelessly as attacking midfielder. This time, we were going for it.

We started well, and after about 15 minutes or so came inches away from scoring when Richardson whipped in one of them low, curling free kicks that acts as both shot and cross, the ball smashed off the post and Jones rebound was stabbed off the line by their debut boy, Kevin Nolan. From the resulting corner, we came close again as Richardson saw a shot desperately blocked.

However, the Mags went up the other end and Andy Carroll hit a looping header which hit the top of the bar and went over. We were the better side, but to be honest still didn’t look totally comfortable when they attacked, and Gutierriz (for all that he his end product is shitter than his haircut) was causing us problems.

But then, after 33 minutes, everything became magical. The Mags tried to clear the ball, Whitehead lifted it back into the area, Jones ducked and Cisse was through. For the first time since 1926, Djibril wasn’t offside, and although his initial effort was blocked by Harper, he was quick enough to dart in and tap home the re-bound. Cue loads of mentalness, that daft windy-up celebration Djib and Jones do and real hope that we were really going to do the double over the set of dirty, unwashed bastards. In Cisse, it seems we have our first true mag-destroyer since Superkev.

We then decided the best way to stop them equalising would be to camp out in our own box, and before and after half-time we were under intense pressure. Rather than try and play the ball out of defence, we seemed to be happy to hoof it aimlessly up front, thus inviting the ball to come right back at us. Cisse went off injured and Chopra came on (more on him later), and we continued to play dreadful. That said, Newcastle didn’t create any real chance of their own, their main threat coming from Marton Fulop deciding that today was the day he was going to chase every into the box, no matter how ridiculous. We were holding on.

That is, until Howard Webb figured he wanted to be a Geordie legend. After already turning down a penalty after Damian Duff dived in the box (he also booked), I had just finished praising him to my mate for not getting fooled, before he was completely and utterly conned by that pathetic Geordie specimen Steven Taylor. I’m not quite sure what Steed Malbranque was meant to have done for the penalty, maybe look at Taylor in a nasty way, but Ameobi stepped up to slam it home (why does he only score past us?).

We started to play a bit more, but in truth both sides could have won it. Andy Reid saw a shot saved by Harper, as well as shooting millimetres wide in injury time, while Ameobi fluffed an open goal (after another Fulop flap) and Carroll had a goal ruled out after good ol’ Shola practically caught a long-ball forward in the build up.

Probably our best chance to win it though came from Michael Chopra, the supposed fox-in-the-box who is deadly when you present him with a chance and who, apparently, was one of the reasons we struggled earlier in the season when he went on loan to Cardiff and we had to struggle on without him. After doing great to close down Collocini, the natural goalscorer’s arse fell out, and rather than shoot (which would have seen us score), or roll the ball across for Jones (which would have seen us score), he decided to belt the ball across the face of the goal and the chance was gone. People around me accused him of ballsing up because he was a Mag (which I’m sure many will). I think it was because he is actually shit at football, and has got away with it for 18 months because he tries hard, bless him.

So there we go. No doubt, we were robbed – it was never a penalty in a million years at all. That said, if we came out for the second half and actually tried to play them and get a second, it might not have been a problem. On the balance of play, a draw may have been fair, but when the scores were level (both at 0-0, and at 1-1) we were the better side, and we created the better chances. It means we are unbeaten in derbies this season, which is nice, but you still can’t help having that hunch that this was a massive missed opportunity to do the bastards again. And for that, you cannot help but feel disappointed.

ALS Man of the Match: Thought Richardson was hard-working, industrious and drove us forward at times, while Jones kept going and causing problems all game despite being knackered by about the 70 th minute. But Anton’s efforts to be a whole defence get my vote as top man.

Paul Maughan (harder than a diamond nail)

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