OTD: NEWCASTLE 1-2 SAFC 2000

On this day in 2000, Peter Reid's Sunderland went to St. James' Park and came out 2-1 winners for the second consecutive season. It was Sir Bobby Robson's first home derby in charge of Newcastle United and opted to start Shearer, unlike his predecessor who had left him on the bench the season prior.

Sunderland travelled north of the Tyne with the home side in patchy form but still towards the top of the table, Peter Reid went with the starting line up of:

Sorensen, Makin, Gray, Thome, Craddock, Rae, Hutchison, Williams, Kilbane, Quinn, Phillips.

Subs: Dichio, Oster, Macho, Varga, Arca.

Gary Speed opened the scoring for Sir Bobby's men after just four minutes, finishing off a goalmouth scramble from the floor, a tense first half would ensue but very little action would ever materialise in terms of close chances.

Sunderland levelled the scoring thanks to a splendid strike from Scottish midfielder Don Hutchinson with just over 20 minutes left to the full time whistle. However, it was the mighty Niall Quinn, who had found himself on the score sheet the season before too, who would grab the match winning goal.

Quinny nodded home a Micky Gray cross past his countryman and former SAFC keeper, Shay Given to give the visitors the lead with less than a quarter of an hour left on the clock.

However, the Irish striker nearly went from hero to zero when he fouled Rob Lee inside the penalty area and referee Graham Poll pointed to the spot in injury time. Alan Shearer stood over the ball, 12 yards from the goal in front of the Gallowgate with only Thomas Sorensen between the sticks. Luckily for Peter Reid and the whole of Wearside, the great Dane guessed correctly and parried the England striker's penalty wide to ensure the three points.