We had the lead against the Mags, but we're still waiting for our first home league win over them since 1980, as James Milner's equaliser gave us another derby draw.

Roy Keane sprang a surprise when he named Carlos Edwards in the starting XI after having been out of action since the second game of the season with his hamstring injury. Ian Harte made his first start at the Stadium of Light, while Paul McShane replaced Danny Collins in defence.

Sunderland started well against the Mags, after brushing away some early pressure, with Grant Leadbitter firing a shot straight at Steven Taylor after Edwards' corner fell to the midfielder. At the other end, Mark Viduka blazed an overhead kick off target, as we won a few free kicks, and wasted them by hitting the ball straight at the wall or sending the ball too deep into the Mags' area.

Wallace volleyed the ball over from eight yards out on the quarter hour mark after being found by another Edwards cross, as we were dealt a blow ten minutes later. During a frantice spell, Nyron Nosworthy stuck a leg out to keep the ball in play - the captain managed to stop the ball from going out for a throw-in, but he quickly pulled up with a hamstring injury, forcing his withdrawal from the game after 25 minutes. Grant Leadbitter was given the armband in Nos' absence, giving the local lad a little extra pride as he skippered his side int he Wear-Tyne derby.

Sunderland kept up the pressure, with Alan Smith blocking Leadbitter's shot on the half hour mark when Michael Chopra's header from Edwards' cross was blocked, but only as far as the stand-in skipper, before Chopra forced a save out of Harper as we went into half time at 0-0, but we kept things up after the restart, with Kenwyne Jones heading a Wallace cross straight into the hands of Harper.

We went a goal ahead on 52 minutes - and it all started with Kenwyne Jones' counter-attack that forced David Rozehnal into conceding a corner. Leadbitter and Jones combined to quickly take the corner, as the ball sailed across and was met by the head of Danny Higginbotham to score his first goal for the club and to send the crowd into delirium.

The Mags tried to get a quick equaliser through Emre's 30 yarder, but their goal came a little over ten minutes later in bizarre circumstances, when James Milner's left wing cross beat four Sunderland defenders as it hit the back of the net past a static Craig Gordon.

From there, Sunderland looked to regain the lead, with Jones firing just wide from 20 yards out, as both keepers were forced into saves. As the game wore on, Sunderland started getting sloppy though, but the Mags couldn't capitalise as we had a late chance to win it, when Chopra hit the bar from Ian Harte's corner. Harte himself volleyed over before Stokes lost the ball on the edge of the area in stoppage time as we kept throwing men forward.

In the end though, the Mags would be happier with the point, as we managed just one goal from nineteen efforts on goal - and the problems that Roy Keane needs to work on are clear for all to see!

Sunderland: Gordon, Nosworthy (sub 25, Collins), McShane, Higginbotham, Harte, Edwards, Leadbitter, Etuhu, Wallace (sub 72, Stokes), Chopra, Jones. Subs: Ward, Miller, Connolly.

Newcastle: Harper, Taylor, Rozehnal, Faye (sub 61, Beye), N'Zogbia, Milner, Barton, Emre (sub 88, Geremi), Smith, Viduka, Owen (sub 83, Martins). Subs: Forster, Enrique.