¡Viva La Rafalution!

NEWCASTLE UNITED

Last season 18th + FA Cup 3rd round + League Cup 3rd round + Last major trophy Fairs Cup 1969
Manager Rafael Benítez (since March 2016)
Players In Matz Sels, Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gayle, Jesús Gámez, Isaac Hayden, Grant Hanley, Ciaran Clark, Mohamed Diamé
Players Out Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan, Steven Taylor, Andros Townsend, Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cissé, Georginio Wijnaldum, Rémy Cabella, Florian Thauvin
Pre-season results
W6-0 v Bohemian (A)
D2-2 v Doncaster Rovers (A)
W4-0 v Sporting Lokeren (A)
W2-0 v Southend United (A)
W3-2 v Vitesse Arnhem (H)

NEWCASTLE UNITED begin their quest for promotion from the Championship as clear favourites for an immediate return to the Premier League. 

Relegated from the top flight for the second time in seven years in May, the last campaign was a catalogue of missed targets on and off the field under hapless - and hopeless - former England manager Steve McClaren.

The Magpies won just nine league games all season and collected only 37 points to finish two behind local rivals Sunderland who scraped survival yet again.

But, despite all of this, the hope on Tyneside is definitely back, as clearly evidenced by the huge upturn in ticket sales. 

With a month still to go, more than 33,000 season tickets had been sold for St James Park, an increase on this time last year. 

Indeed, that figure means there will be more season ticket holders at Newcastle than at Tottenham Hotspur or Chelsea, and more than at Watford, Burnley, West Bromwich Albion and Bournemouth put together.

Of course, this will not stop some supporters of other clubs taking precious time out of their seemingly hopelessly empty lives to throw a quick jibe in the direction of Newcastle.

This is especially prevalent on social media platforms - so credit must go to this supporter for turning the insults into a potentially thrilling game of bingo...

On a more serious note, however, it is great to see the hierachy at the club once again engaging with the fanbase.

A crowd-funded exercise to improve the matchday experience, Gallowgate Flags, has been given the board's blessing - and, for the first time in years, it feels as if everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Rarely in life nowadays are simple narratives able to tell the whole story.

Undoubtedly, though, this frenzied outpouring of genuine excitement can all be credited to one man and one man only - former Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid coach Rafael Benítez. 

As feared, the Spaniard ultimately arrived too late last season to do enough to save the Magpies from going down.

Nevertheless, a campaign of failure finished on an incredible high as Newcastle hammered third-placed Tottenham 5-1 on a sunny day amid a glorious atmosphere. 

Almost all of the ear-tingling crowd noise that day focused on encouraging Benítez to stay - and so there was a massive sense of satisfaction when the serial winner duly signed a three-year contract on 25 May.

The decision - surely helped by the atmosphere against Spurs - confirmed to any remaining doubters that Benítez gets what this club is about. He just knows exactly what it means to the people of Tyneside.

Since then, the mutual goodwill has continued.

On 17 July, he posted a short anniversary tribute on his personal blog to Liam Sweeney and John Alder, the two Newcastle fans killed when their Malaysia Airways flight MH17 was shot out of the sky over Ukraine in 2014.

And, on a happier note, he also appeared on a BBC Radio Newcastle phone-in in which he revealed the prize fact that his house on Merseyside is coincidentally called Lindisfarne.

Most importantly of all, though, Benítez - on the football front - appears to be the first manager who has the total trust of owner Mike Ashley to build his own team and squad.

Inevitably, following relegation, there have been some departures from that squad. At least though, the sales of Andros Townsend and Georginio Wijnaldum both fetched good fees.

Additionally, the sight of the likes of Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Florian Thauvin and Papiss Cissé heading for the exit door has hardly caused too much heartache.

Instead, the focus largely has been on the replacements. 

New number nine Dwight Gayle looks lightning quick in the mode of Craig Bellamy, while the pedigree of Matt Ritchie at this level is undoubted.

Scotland international Ritchie scored 15 goals and assisted 17 more in his last season at this level when he won the Championship with Bournemouth, and he has the potential to be the best player in the division.

Of the other signings, midfielder Isaac Hayden looks comfortable on the ball, as you would expect with him having arrived from Arsenal.

The likes of Jesús Gámez, Grant Hanley, and Ciaran Clark add some much-needed depth to the defence, and Mohamed Diamé has clearly been lined up as a replacement for long-time wantaway Moussa Sissoko.

Just as important has been the retentions so far of Ayoze Pérez and Aleksandar Mitrović up front, as well as Chancel Mbemba and Daryl Janmaat at the back.

The squad, without doubt, is the strongest in the division - and it is led by one of the most decorated managers which the second tier has ever seen in its history.

Nonetheless, that does not mean there are no worries whatsoever.

An encouraging pre-season against largely weak opposition saw no fewer than 17 goals scored - but, of more concern, all four conceded came from set-pieces.

The defence thus remains an area of weakness, and it is not a weakness which has necessarily been alleviated by the signings of Clark or Hanley.

Clark, in kind with most of his team-mates at Aston Villa last season, made some dreadful errors throughout - while Hanley has already played four seasons with Blackburn Rovers at this level without much success.

The hope at the back therefore remains with Mbemba, if he stays, and the new club Jamaal Lascelles who, at 22, has quickly developed into a much-needed on-pitch leader.

Up front, it remains to be seen if any of the main strikers - Gayle, Pérez or Mitrović - are going to be prolific enough to fire Newcastle to the top of the league.

None of their records so far suggests so - and Mitrović, in particular, simply must learn from the sort of mistakes which have given him a stupidly extended pre-season this summer.

The last worry is an unknown which Newcastle cannot control, and that is the sheer unpredictability of the Championship.

Although that sounds like a bit of a cliché - and to some extent it is one - it is nevertheless true that the nature of a 46-game season allows every single team in the division to run into a cycle of good form at some point. 

It always helps to play the right teams at the right time - and, on that basis, a little luck will be necessary.

On top of that, the number of fixtures means there are many more midweek matches. 

In the Championship, a cold Tuesday night in Barnsley or Wigan is not a line delivered by a pub bore arguing about Lionel Messi but a reality which the players must face.

Interestingly, three of the four losses suffered by Chris Hughton's 2009/10 champions came on midweek evenings - at Blackpool in September, Scunthorpe United in October, and Derby County in February.

Even the famous Kevin Keegan-led vintage of 1992/93 also had a few games to forget before a dozen Andy Cole goals spearheaded a rousing finish.

What was ultimately important about those two seasons, though, was that both of those teams won the second tier and actually both quite comfortably in the end.

With confidence in the city sky-high, all the cards are in Benítez's favour to do it again. 

Newcastle United now must hold their nerve and play it right.


NUFC 2016-17 FIXTURE LIST

Date	KO	TV/Cup			Scorers	Att
05-Aug	7.45pm	Sky	Fulham (A)	0-1		23,922
13-Aug			Huddersfield Town (H)	1-2	Gayle	52,079
17-Aug	7.45pm		Reading (H)	4-1	Hayden, Ritchie, Gayle 2	48,209
20-Aug			Bristol City (A)	1-0	Gayle	22,512
23-Aug	7.45pm	LC2	Cheltenham Town (H)	2-0	Perez 2	21,972
27-Aug	5.30pm	Sky	Brighton & Hove Albion (H)	2-0	Lascelles, Shelvey	49,196
10-Sep	5.30pm	Sky	Derby County (A)	2-0	Gouffran, Yedlin	30,405
13-Sep	7.45pm		Queens Park Rangers (A)	6-0	Shelvey 2, Perez, Clark Mitrovic, Hanley	17,404
17-Sep			Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)	0-2		52,117
20-Sep	7.45pm	LC3	Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)	2-0	Ritchie, Gouffran	34,735
24-Sep	5.30pm	Sky	Aston Villa (A)	1-1	own goal (Elphick)	32,062
28-Sep	7.45pm		Norwich City (H)	4-3	Gayle 3, Gouffran	48,236
01-Oct			Rotherham United (A)	1-0	Atsu	11,653
15-Oct			Brentford (H)	3-1	Clark, Gayle 2	51,885
18-Oct	7.45pm		Barnsley (A)	2-0	Gayle 2	18,597
22-Oct			Ipswich Town (H)	3-0	Perez 2, Ritchie	51,963
25-Oct	7.45pm	LC4	Preston North End (H)	6-0	Mitrovic 2, Diame 2, Ritchie, Perez	49,042
29-Oct			Preston North End (A)	2-1	Mitrovic 2	20,724
05-Nov			Cardiff City (H)	2-1	Atsu, Gouffran	51,257
20-Nov	1.15pm	Sky	Leeds United (A)	2-0	Gayle 2	36,002
26-Nov			Blackburn Rovers (H)	0-1		52,092
29-Nov	7.45pm	LCQF	Hull City (A)	1-1*	Diame	16,243
02-Dec	7.45pm	Sky	Nottingham Forest (A)	1-2	Ritchie	21,317
10-Dec			Birmingham City (H)	4-0	Gayle 3, Gouffran	52,145
14-Dec	7.45pm	Sky	Wigan Athletic (A)	2-0	Diame, Atsu	14,562
17-Dec			Burton Albion (A)	2-1	Gayle, Diame	6,665
26-Dec	7.45pm	Sky	Sheffield Wednesday (H)	0-1		52,179
30-Dec	7.45pm		Nottingham Forest (H)	3-1	Ritchie, Gayle 2	52,228
02-Jan		Sky	Blackburn Rovers (A)	0-1		18,254
07-Jan		FAC3	Birmingham City (A)	1-1	Murphy	13,171
14-Jan			Brentford (A)	2-1	Gayle, Murphy	11,435
18-Jan	7.45pm	FAC3R	Birmingham City (A)	3-1	Ritchie 2, Gouffran	34,896
21-Jan			Rotherham United (H)	4-0	Murphy, Ritchie 2, Perez	52,208
28-Jan		FAC4	Oxford United (A)	0-3		11,810
01-Feb	7.45pm		Queens Park Rangers (H)	2-2	Shelvey, Ritchie	47,909
04-Feb			Derby County (H)	1-0	Ritchie	52,271
11-Feb	5.30pm	Sky	Wolverhampton Wanderers (A)	1-0	Mitrovic	24,876
14-Feb	7.45pm		Norwich City (A)	2-2	Perez, Lascelles	26,841
20-Feb	8.00pm	Sky	Aston Villa (H)	2-0	Gouffran, own goal (Lansbury)	50,024
25-Feb			Bristol City (H)	2-2	own goal (Smith), Clark	52,131
28-Feb	7.45pm	Sky	Brighton & Hove Albion (A)	2-1	Diame, Perez	30,230
04-Mar	5.30pm	Sky	Huddersfield Town (A)	3-1	Ritchie, Murphy, Gayle	23,213
07-Mar	8.00pm		Reading (A)	0-0		23,121
11-Mar			Fulham (H)	1-3	Murphy	51,903
18-Mar			Birmingham City (A)	0-0		19,796
01-Apr			Wigan Athletic (H)	2-1	Gayle, Ritchie	51,849
05-Apr	7.45pm		Burton Albion (H)	1-0	Ritchie 2	48,814
08-Apr	5.30pm	Sky	Sheffield Wednesday (A)	1-2	Shelvey	28,883
14-Apr	7.45pm	Sky	Leeds United (H)	1-1	Lascelles	52,301
17-Apr			Ipswich Town (A)	1-3	Murphy	25,684
24-Apr	7.45pm	Sky	Preston North End (H)	4-1	Perez 2, Atsu, Ritchie	50,212
28-Apr	7.45pm	Sky	Cardiff City (A)	2-0	Atsu, Hayden	23,153
07-May	12pm		Barnsley (H)	3-0	Perez, Mbemba, Gayle	52,276

Kick-off 3pm unless stated. NUFC score listed first. Sky appearances: 17
*after extra time. Lost 1-3 on penalties.

SCORERS
23 Dwight Gayle
16 Matt Ritchie
12 Ayoze Perez
7 Yoan Gouffran
6 Mohamed Diame, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Daryl Murphy
5 Christian Atsu, Jonjo Shelvey
3 Ciaran Clark, Jamaal Lascelles
2 Isaac Hayden
1 Grant Hanley, Chancel Mbemba, DeAndre Yedlin 
3 own goals
Total goals: 100

50 years of hurt

WORLD CUP FINAL

Saturday 30 July 1966

 
England 4 Hurst 18, 101, 120, Peters 78
West Germany 2 Haller 12, Weber 89
After extra time

England Banks - Cohen, J Charlton, Moore (c), Wilson - Stiles, Ball, R Charlton, Peters - Hurst, Hunt. Booked Peters Manager Alf Ramsey
West Germany Tilkowski - Höttges, Schulz, Weber, Schnellinger - Beckenbauer, Overath - Haller, Seeler (c), Held, Emmerich Manager Helmut Schön
Attendance 96,924 at Wembley Stadium, London Referee Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland)
Kick-off 3pm BST. Live on BBC and ITV.

ENGLAND won the World Cup on this day 50 years ago, beating stubborn West Germany 4-2 at Wembley after extra time.

Geoff Hurst scored a famous hat-trick, Martin Peters got the other goal and thus ensured a third West Ham United man, captain Bobby Moore, lifted the Jules Rimet trophy.

The Germans were a good but not yet a great team. Aged 20, future star Franz Beckenbauer was still just a youngster.

Nevertheless, the visitors gave England a scare by taking an early lead and then, much later, equalising with seconds left from a set-piece.

In between, England played generally well - Hurst scored his first with a glancing header from a floated Moore free-kick before Peters looked to have won it with a low half-volley from eight yards in the 78th minute.

It was never going to be that easy, though. Germany equalised - and yet, far from deflating the English players, the late German goal actually seemed to galvanise Alf Ramsey's men.

Of course, the controversy over Hurst's second goal to make it 3-2 goes on to this day.

So it was a good job then that he added his third and England's fourth in comprehensive fashion, made especially famous by Kenneth Wolstenholme's line: "They think it's all over. It is now."

Sadly, that is as good as it has ever got for English football.

By contrast, for Germany, the 1966 Final was just a starting point. The Germans - either as West Germany or as a unified team - have since won the World Cup three times in 1974, 1990 and 2014, having previously won it in 1954.

Additionally, the Nationalmannschaft have also been European Championship winners in 1972, 1980 and on English soil in 1996.

Moreover, their overall record is superb - they have reached at least the semi finals of the World Cup on 10 occasions and at least the semi finals of the Euros on nine occasions in the last 50 years, including a run of the last six consecutive tournaments under Joachim Löw.

In short, if anything, Germany are guilty of not having won even more.

England, of course, have won nothing in that timeframe, and have only made three semi final appearances in the last 50 years - in 1968, 1990 and 1996.

Now, if anything, the Three Lions are getting further away - at least in those painful 1990s shootout defeats to Germany, there was genuine hope that it might be different next time.

The mood in those days was perfectly summed up by the bittersweet refrain of Three Lions by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds: "Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming".

However, no matter how many times England fans closed their eyes to dream, no trophy ever arrived.

As a reaction, in the early 2000s, the Football Association (FA) took a step to change the years of failure but courted controversy by appointing a foreigner in the role of head coach for the first time.

Sven-Göran Eriksson's tenure lasted five years - and, while he ended up generating as many stories about his lurid private life as anything on the pitch, his record was at least respectable.

The Swede oversaw three successive quarter finals with England only beaten by eventual winners Brazil in 2002 before two more shootout defeats, both to Portugal, in 2004 and 2006.

Even this relatively modest level now appears difficult for England to achieve on a consistent basis.

In the last 10 years, there has been only one run to the last eight of a tournament - that came in 2012 and was somewhat unexpected given that Roy Hodgson had just taken over.

England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 under the instruction of the wally with the brolley, Steve McClaren.

Meanwhile, the 2010 and 2014 World Cup campaigns also both ended badly - the first with a 4-1 reverse to Germany in Bloemfontein, and the latter with a first group stage exit since 1958.

Such a thorough lack of achievement is branded "a national disgrace" by Daily Telegraph writer Henry Winter in the introduction of his excellent book, also called Fifty Years of Hurt.

Winter adds: "Wembley stands as part-shrine to 1966 and part-monument to catastrophe."

Now Winter's book was released prior to this summer's finals in France where England undoubtedly recorded the worst result in their finals history since the infamous 1-0 defeat to the United States at the 1950 World Cup.

There can be no doubt about it - that humiliating 2-1 loss to Iceland, just over four weeks ago, was so laughably terrible that it deserves to be ranked alongside the defeat to the Americans.

It should therefore also be seen as a watershed moment.

Already, though, the actions of the FA directors suggest they are content again with just muddling through and hoping for the best.

Indeed, outside of the fact that he is an Englishman, the appointment of the self-styled Big Sam Allardyce - that purveyor of a soul-destroying, long-ball game - makes no sense at all.

As a Newcastle United fan, it would be fair to say that this correspondent does not have an unbiased opinion of the Dudley-born 61-year-old.

However, I do write from a position of having experienced Allardyce as the manager of the club which I support, albeit for a thankfully short period of six months.

In that time, Newcastle found themselves 3-0 down to Portsmouth at home in eight minutes - and, a few weeks later, failed to have a single shot on target or a corner in a meek surrender to Liverpool at home.

The final score was 3-0 to the Reds but it was a result which could have been doubled at least.

Then, in January, the Magpies played for a 0-0 draw away at then-Championship Stoke City in the FA Cup. It was to be Allardyce's final game at the club.

Nevertheless, his reign at Newcastle will be most remembered on Tyneside for the two games against Derby County.

Derby were the worst team which the top flight of English football has even seen, collecting 11 points all season. Four of them came from Newcastle.

The first three came in a 1-0 away defeat on a bitterly cold September night in Derby. Kenny Miller scored the winner as the Rams' recorded their only win of the season.

Then, in the return game in December at St James Park, Newcastle twice had to battle from a goal down to rescue a point. Mark Viduka struck the second equaliser with three minutes left.

So, in 180 minutes of football against the worst side ever in the Premier League, Allardyce and his team were ahead for precisely none of them. The disbelief lingers even now.

All of that was almost 10 years ago - so, to be fairer to him, let us take a look at his more recent managerial spells.

At West Ham, he failed ever to win the backing of the majority of supporters even when he had guided the team into the top four at Christmas in 2014-15.

Hammers fans knew the form could not be sustained - and, following a run of only three league wins and 11 defeats after the turn of the year, the Londoners finished 12th. It was time for Allardyce to go.

Happily for him, he was not out of work long as a struggling Sunderland side turned to him salvation.

Allardyce achieved his goal of keeping the Black Cats in the Premier League, something for which he has been lauded.

But safety for the Wearsiders only came in the final week of the season, despite him having been in charge for 30 of the 38 league games. They ultimately finished 17th having won nine games.

Is that really enough even to be considered for what is meant to be the top football job in the country?

Apparently it is - but the appointment of Allardyce will do nothing to resolve England's inherent weaknesses.

As proven by the performances of many of the players in the Premier League, the national team does not lack in ability.

It does, however, lack bottle in that it fears taking risks on the field and, worst of all, outright panics at the slightest hint of a setback.

The second half headless chicken chasing in the Iceland match was perhaps the biggest example of this but there have been countless others over the years.

Brash Allardyce - with all of his bravado - may seem, on the surface, to be the ideal character to help England overcome their psychological barriers.

But hitting long passes into channels and sitting deep only ever provides a thin veneer of bravery. Eventually it will crumble.

It perhaps explains why Glenn Hoddle is still curiously admired by many England fans, notwithstanding his clearly questionable personal beliefs.

In football terms, though, Hoddle knew his stuff. His rearguard tactics away to Italy in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers and against Argentina with 10 men in the finals themselves were both notable for the way England never stopped trying to play passing football.

Hoddle, however, has been out of the game for too long now - and then there are those inescapably unacceptable views on the disabled.

Nevertheless, someone like Hoddle - a coach who would eliminate the fear felt by players by giving them genuine confidence on the ball - is who England should have been looking at.

For that is real bravery in football - wanting the ball and then expressing yourself with it, actually enjoying the occasion and the challenge rather than worrying about what people might think.

Of course, with no obvious Englishman meeting that criteria expect perhaps for the hugely inexperienced Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, that would obviously have meant another foreign-born coach.

Unlike Fabio Capello, it would have needed to be a coach who knew about English football - but, like Capello, someone who has also been a winner.

Even set against those requirements, there were still a few valid candidates - former Manchester City coach Manuel Pellegrini or, better still, an audacious attempt could have been made to pull Arsene Wenger out of his comfort zone at Arsenal.

Instead, shamefully and indeed shamelessly, the FA has made another pathetically short-sighted decision.

Allardyce - unless he fails massively like McClaren - will no doubt do enough to scrape England to the finals.

But qualification will be secured amid a set of uninspiring performances, with perhaps a couple of dodgy away results thrown in for good measure.

Once at the finals, the Three Lions will revert to their usual fearful selves, either losing a game they should win or by meekly ceding the ball to a superior team.

Certainly, it does not feel as if the 50 years of hurt are going to end any time soon. Never stopped me dreaming? Pah.

English football - for all the riches of its top division - is now enduring a living nightmare.

Can Newcastle United banish their derby woes?

PREMIER League stragglers Newcastle United and Sunderland face each other tomorrow at noon in the most important and eagerly anticipated Wear-Tyne derby in years.

The bottom-placed Black Cats, on three points, are without a league win all season while Steve McClaren's visiting Magpies are only slightly better off on six points.

Newcastle did get off the mark in some style last weekend, however - beating Norwich City 6-2 at St James Park thanks to four goals from Georginio Wijnaldum. Nevertheless, this derby match will surely be a different sort of game to that open encounter.

Undoubtedly adding further spice to the proceedings is the recent appointment to the hot-seat at the Stadium of Light of Sam Allardyce.

The self-styled Big Sam - who played on Wearside in the 1980-81 season - actually becomes Sunderland's fourth 'permanent' appointment in 30 months.

Previously, of course, Allardyce also managed Newcastle for an eighth-month period in 2007 and 2008.

But he was dismissed from Gallowgate when a run of poor results could no longer absolve his horrendous style of football - so it is fair to say there is plenty of recent history then.

Moreover, Allardyce would love to extend the bizarre sequence in this fixture which has seen Sunderland, despite all their instability, reel off their all-time best run of five wins in a row.

Most recently, the Mackems prevailed on Easter Sunday this year when Jermain Defoe scored the only goal with a fine volley just before half time.

Yes, that victory equalled the all-time record held by Newcastle when the black-and-whites had the fortune of taking on two embarrassingly poor teams from Wearside between 2002 and 2006.

This time, on home turf - and with a potential new manager bounce - bookmakers' favourites Sunderland will strongly favour themselves to break the record.

For there can be no doubt that a new manager has assisted the Black Cats in their recent run of derby success.

Incredibly, Allardyce's predecessors Paulo di Canio, Gus Poyet, and Dick Advocaat all beat Newcastle in only their second respective games in charge of Sunderland - and this will also be Allardyce's second match.

A proud man - though many would say an equally vainglorious one - he would dearly love to be added to that list, and use it as a springboard to guide Sunderland to safety.

After all, he has his own record to protect - that of having never been relegated in more than 20 years of management.

Indeed, he retains a very high opinion of himself, claiming he still envisages himself one day taking charge of England, a position which was denied to him in 2006.

Coincidentally, it was McClaren who got the nod as national team boss instead - though his reign ended in defeat and humiliation, with a failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

Now, McClaren - via Holland, Germany, Nottingham Forest, Holland again, and Derby County - has arrived at Newcastle and prepared for his first Wear-Tyne derby by sending an email to supporters.

"I don't need reminding that we have lost the last five derbies and for everyone associated with the club that is simply unbearable," McClaren wrote. 

"It wasn't so long ago that we won five in row and we are desperately keen and hugely motivated to turn the tide and bring the points back to Tyneside. 

"The atmosphere is always incredible and I think unique to the North East and we have to go there, stand up and be counted. There’s no question that our players understand what it means to win the derby."

Of course, McClaren has been able to approach the build-up to this match from an unfamiliar position of strength following the performance last Sunday.

For, while the three points against the Canaries did not take Newcastle out of the bottom three, the six goals tempered a swirling sense of discontent which a winless run inevitably brings. 

Additionally, McClaren seems to be settling on a more consistent selection, particularly up front where new signing Aleksandr Mitrovic and Spanish whizz-kid Ayoze Perez look a troublesome pairing. 

Indeed, Mitrovic could end up being the most important player on the pitch - but only provided he stays on it, of course. 

Unfortunately, for Newcastle, there can be no guarantee of that especially if the Serbian is as easily wound up in a hostile atmosphere as he was in his first few games in England which included a sending off against Arsenal. 

He has given his assurances, though - and so Sunderland may have to look elsewhere if they are to damage Newcastle 

That will likely mean targeting a shaky defence with Allardyce-style direct play - for, even in the fine win against Norwich, the Magpies' rearguard struggled at times. 

Also, Dutch keeper Tim Krul has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a severe knee injury sustained on international duty leaving Rob Elliott between the sticks. 

But, equally, Sunderland have struggled at the back this term, both teams having conceded 19 times in their nine games so far. 

Goals should be expected then - however, this will surely be a tighter, scrappier affair with the winning team, if there is one, succeeding only by a single goal.

It promises, as ever, to be a tense - though hopefully trouble-free - couple of hours.

ALL-TIME RECORD

Goals		Draws		Goals
224	Sunderland 50	49	53 Newcastle United	222

AT SUNDERLAND

Goals		Draws		Goals
104	Sunderland 25	28	21 Newcastle United	97

FIVE IN A ROW

	SUNDERLAND					NEWCASTLE UNITED
14-Apr-2013	won 3-0 (a) (Sessegnon, Johnson, Vaughan)				24-Feb-2002	won 1-0 (a) (Dabizas)
27-Oct-2013	won 2-1 (h) (Fletcher, Borini)				21-Sep-2002	won 2-0 (h) (Bellamy, Shearer)
01-Feb-2014	won 3-0 (a) (Borini (p), Johnson, Colback)				26-Apr-2003	won 1-0 (a) (Solano (p))
21-Dec-2014	won 1-0 (a) (Johnson)				23-Oct-2005	won 3-2 (h) (Ameobi 2, Emre)
05-Apr-2015	won 1-0 (h) (Defoe)				17-Apr-2006	won 4-1 (a) (Chopra, Shearer (p), N'Zgobia, Luque)

SEASON 2015/2016 SO FAR

	SUNDERLAND P9 W0 D3 L6 F8 A19 Pts 3 Top scorer: Defoe, Fletcher, Lens (2)					NEWCASTLE UNITED P9 W1 D3 L5 F12 A19 Pts 6 Top scorer: Wijnaldum (6)
08-Aug	Leicester City (A)	2-4	19th		09-Aug	Southampton (H)	2-2	7th
15-Aug	Norwich City (H)	1-3	20th		15-Aug	Swansea City (A)	0-2	15th
22-Aug	Swansea City (H)	1-1	20th		22-Aug	Manchester United (A)	0-0	16th
29-Aug	Aston Villa (A)	2-2	20th		29-Aug	Arsenal (H)	0-1	18th
13-Sep	Tottenham Hotspur (H)	0-1	20th		14-Sep	West Ham United (A)	0-2	20th
19-Sep	AFC Bournemouth (A)	0-2	20th		19-Sep	Watford (H)	1-2	19th
26-Sep	Manchester United (A)	0-3	20th		26-Sep	Chelsea (H)	2-2	19th
03-Oct	West Ham United (H)	2-2	19th		03-Oct	Manchester City (A)	1-6	20th
17-Oct	West Bromwich Albion (A)	0-1	20th		18-Oct	Norwich City (H)	6-2	18th