Sunderland slumped to a disappointing derby loss at the SOL against the Scum thanks to a second half Ryan Taylor free kick on Saturday lunchtime. Despite dominating much of the possession throughout the game, the lads lacked sharpness at the top end of the pitch and were ultimately punished after lessons from last season were not learned .

So the big one was upon us a lot sooner than a lot of us expected and I know a few people who have season tickets who had booked holidays/trips away and were caught out when the fixture computer selected the derby as the opening home fixture of our 2011/2012 campaign.

We went into the game on the back of a good point and solid display last Saturday at Anfield thanks to Seb Larsson’s second half wonder goal. Though the performance was pleasing I felt Bruce was left with a dilemma similar to the one he faced prior to last season’s Halloween horror show. The side that capitulated that day had been in great form prior to the derby but their inexperience was exploited in devastating fashion.

With a decent result last week I wondered would Bruce change things as I still felt the midfield that started last Saturday was still a relatively youthful one and I also felt Elmo struggled in both derbies last season as after being whacked early in both games he was ineffective. John O’Shea nearing a return to full fitness only added to the selection dilemma. Maybe it was just pre game nerves but I couldn’t make my mind up what I would do so it was a tough call for Steve Bruce.

A word on our friends, but what can you say about that lot? Not content with their fans embarrassing themselves in a preseason friendly their players continued the trend in last Saturday evening’s televised game with shameful antics. We shouldn’t be surprised though and I expected more today with Catts a prime target for Joey Barton.

Anyway onto today and Bruce opted to stick with last week’s eleven meaning we lined up with Mignolet in goal behind a back four of Bardsley, Ferdinand, Brown and Richardson. In the midfield Larsson, Cattermole, Colback and Elmo. Up front Asamoah Gyan shrugged off last week’s ankle knock to start as the lone striker with Sessegnon behind him in the hole.

In front of a sell out crowd and red hot atmosphere they kicked off towards the North Stand but we were quickly on top of them with Sessegnon looking lively behind Gyan and scuffing a shot wide of the post. We got into a few dangerous positions down the left wing but every time the ball came into the box we had no players on the end of it. I lost count of the number of times Gyan hogged the right touchline.

The Mags thought they had taken the lead from a corner when Barton was denied by Larsson’s arm but the officials signalled for another corner much to the disgust of the visitors.

After the break the game seemed to settle down for a bit until on the half hour the Mags took the lead after Cattermole had hacked down Gutierrez on the edge of the box even though the Argentinean was going nowhere. Ryan Taylor curled the free kick into the top corner past Mignolet and after that the lads were chasing the game.

Moments after the goal Cattermole, Bardo and Barton were all booked after another challenge from the Sunderland skipper caused a mêlée. Time to strip him of the armband Bruce? With twenty minutes to go Gardner and Ji replaced Richardson and the ineffective Elmo.

Gyan fired a tame effort over the bar before Mignolet did well to deny Ameobi. With ten minutes to go Bruce played his last roll of the dice throwing on Connor Wickham for his home debut at the expense of Larsson which was bizarre. As surely when you playing with three forwards, two of which are six foot plus, you would want your best crosser of the ball on the pitch?

Late on Bardo saw red for a second booking after a challenge on Coloccini . It looked like a 50/50 to me but I’ll have to see it again to be sure. Either way there was no way back anyway as despite the three forwards on the pitch we were severely lacking a cutting edge, not just for the last ten minutes, but for the whole game.

Another disappointing derby performance under Mr Bruce and the pressure is certainly on now ahead of next week’s tough game away to Swansea. I’m sure as well as us supporters a certain Mr Short will be asking why a number of players who he purchased this summer seemingly can’t get a game ahead of the ones who let us down last year.

ALS Man of the Match: Wes Brown

Final Score: Sunderland 0 Newcastle 1

Aidan Crowe

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