“It's Defoe… WHAT A GOAL! Jermain Defoe writes his name in Wear-Tyne derby folklore!” It’s the anniversary of THAT goal, and more importantly that game which saw us beat the Mags 1-0 at the Stadium Of Light.
Heading into the game both sides were finding it hard to accumulate some points, we were struggling for form and had recently appointed a new gaffer in Dick Advocaat. Jermain Defoe hadn’t found the back of the net in the last six games and we hadn’t won a game in the last eight.
Thankfully that all came to an end and it was Newcastle who started their very own bad run, which was delightful to witness as this result made it four losses in a row for the Mags, and more importantly five losses in a row against the Black Cats.
The match had several story arcs, one of them being that this was Dick Advocaat’s second game in charge of the Lads. Good to see he kept up the tradition of spanking the Mags in his second game in charge, just like his predecessors Paolo Di Canio and Gus Poyet.
It was also the return of former player Jack Colback to the SoL, but that day the midfield was completely under Lee Cattermole’s authority. Catts won pretty much all his duels and dominated the middle of the park for us. Thankfully for Colback, he was placed at left back- although Catts would go on to get his revenge on Colback in October…
We started the game with an unusual front three of Conor Wickham, Steven Fletcher and Defoe. Defoe was in a different position from what he’s used to as he was out wide on the right flank.
The first half was an embarrassing reminder of what we had seen for the majority of the season, getting into good advanced positions but inevitably finding a way to fluff it up. That was until Costel Pantilimon punted long to Fletcher, who nodded it onto the edge of the box for Defoe who hit a thunder bastard of a volley on the weak foot into the top right corner. A stark reminder of the old adage ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’.
The glorious strike reduced JD to tears as he ran into the crowd with his arms open wide embracing the supporters. ALS even had commemorative Defoe socks to remember the iconic moment!
The volley wasn’t the only impressive thing Defoe did that day, even at the age of 32 he was all over the pitch, running onto through balls, jumping for the ball in the air and he was even tracking back, sliding into challenges near his own corner flag. The performance left many in awe, including former teammate Danny Murphy who said "I have never seen him work as hard before".
Ultimately Defoe’s goal was enough to secure the win but we came close to bridging the gap further as Seb Larsson fired a free-kick just wide which we all thought had gone in at the time. Some of the plaudits from the win had to go to Pantilimon too, if it wasn’t for his quick reaction save from a snapshot from the edge of the area from Remy Cabella then we would’ve gone home with only one point.
