Sunderland 2 Newcastle United 1 Attendance 47,936
This midday Premiership fixture was a mouth watering North East derby and lived up to the expectation with both teams showing lots of commitment in the tackle and desire to win. Cisse scored first in the 20th minute stabbing home a Melbranque cross. Shola Amoebi then made it even only ten minutes later with a well worked move finished off with a firm header from the Nigerian.
But it was in the second half that Kieran Richardson made the Stadium of Light erupt with a thunderbolt free kick hitting the top corner of the net. This was a wonderful goal showing superb techinque to bend and swerve the ball at high speed - Shay Given had no chance.
Newcastle's performance was stronger and are showing more signs of improvement currently from Spurs but Joe Kinnear will feel the pain of losing a local derby whilst being in the bottom 3.