A lack of a desire to get up the pitch led to Sunderland losing their first Wear-Tyne Derby since 2011.
An own goal by Dan Ballard and a brace from Alexander Isak saw Newcastle come away from the Stadium of Light with a 3-0 win.
Sunderland hosted Newcastle United for the 157th edition of the Wear-Tyne Derby in a game that had been the talk of both cities since the draw was made. Newcastle had been in poor form going into the match, winning just once in their last eight attempts and along the way being thrown out of both the Champions League and Carabao Cup. That made this game all the more important for Eddie Howe’s men as the FA Cup became their only realistic chance of attaining silverware during this season and a defeat to their local rivals in the division below would be a source of great embarrassment. Sunderland meanwhile had the advantage when it came to form, coming away with seven points from a possible nine in their last three Championship matches. Since Tony Mowbray was sacked we’d also won big games against West Brom, Leeds and Hull but then again had succumbed to a heavy defeat to Coventry and dropped points to bottom o