Sunderland 1-0 Newcastle (Woltemade og 46′)
STADIUM OF LIGHT — After the final whistle signalled the sweetest of Wear-Tyne derby wins for Sunderland, their triumphant players and staff huddled in front of a celebrating Roker End for a photograph that was freighted with symbolism.
This was a picture two years in the making, revenge for the crowing selfie Newcastle United’s players and staff staged in front of their massed supporters after an emphatic FA Cup win on Wearside nearly two years ago.
I CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU pic.twitter.com/Gf8W1y6sBv
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) December 14, 2025How the celebrating Sunderland fans, who have endured the best part of a decade in the shadow of their neighbours, lapped it up.
It was the final humiliation of a desperate day for Eddie Howe’s Magpies, who proved masters of their own downfall once again in a season that has lurched from promising to poor at an alarming rate.
This was far from a classic contest but a fired-up Sunderland side, hungrier and sharper throughout, deserved this win, even if Nick Woltemade felt like the unlikeliest of red and white heroes.
If this win doesn’t quite represent a shifting of the tectonic plates of north-east football, it certainly felt like the ground was shaking at the Stadium of Light at times.
These games have consequences and for Sunderland it reasserts them as the feelgood story of this Premier League season.
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Regis Le Bris and the recruitment brains trust on Wearside have fashioned a very good team and they should dare to dream this season.
Granit Xhaka and Dan Ballard again stood out in a scrappy game but for such a young side, Sunderland managed the occasion superbly.
For Newcastle, the immediate future feels darker.
Woltemade’s horrific own goal – his header meeting Nordi Mukiele’s fizzing cross under zero pressure – will prompt soul-searching at St James’ Park.
Howe has a vault of goodwill in the bank but he made a withdrawal of some of it with a result as damaging as any of his time in charge.
It feels like something is broken. We have been saying for weeks that patience is required but this was a wretched performance that sends them right back to square one. Fundamentals aren’t right and you can trace it back to questionable recruitment in the close season.
Sunderland spent £160m to rebuild their team for the Premier League, a figure less than the money Newcastle forked out to sign Woltemade, Anthony Elanga and Jacob Ramsey in the close season. None of them impacted this game. Ramsey didn’t even get off the bench.
Elanga was a statement summer signing, prised from Nottingham Forest for £55m after a lengthy Howe-led pursuit, but this was the nadir of a paltry first four months on Tyneside.
A player that looked tailor-made for Howe’s crash-bang style of pressing football appears bereft of confidence and composure, unable to beat an opposition man and never in the right position to utilise his lightning pace.
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He was dreadful here, surrendering possession frequently and offering zero threat before being withdrawn for Jacob Murphy, the man he was supposed to be an upgrade on.
Elanga hasn’t been helped by a noticeable change in the way Newcastle set up, especially away from home. A team whose unofficial mantra used to be that intensity was their identity are trying to transition to a gameplan that targets phases of play, perhaps conserving energy for a three-game-a-week schedule.
But success has been patchy and when it doesn’t work – as it didn’t for an hour here – they look decidedly average at best. They relied on an electric front three last season but this term the lights have been switched out on Elanga, Anthony Gordon and the unfortunate Woltemade. For sparkling Sunderland, there are no such worries.
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