Newcastle 2 Sunderland 0
Scorers: Owen (4m, 45m pen)
St James' Park
Attendance: 52,305
Barclays Premier League
Sunday April 20, 2008

Goals at the start and end of the first half gave Newcastle a derby win over Sunderland today, as the Lads weren't embarrassed - but didn't exactly do much to deserve any sort of a result.

Jonny Evans and Phil Bardsley missed out through injury, replaced by Paul McShane and Danny Higginbotham, while Carlos Edwards came back into a five-man midfield that also included Liam Miller, making his first start since being transfer listed.

Kieran Richardson and Grant Leadbitter joined former Mag Michael Chopra on the subs bench as the Mags were unchanged.

Sunderland endured a horrible start, thanks in part to Paul McShane, when he lost track of Michael Owen, who headed in Geremi's cross after just three and a half minutes. Things almost got worse moments later, when McShane headed in a corner - although thankfully, Mike Riley had blown up seconds earlier for a foul.

Kenwyne Jones looked isolated up front, and when he did have someone from midfield coming up, the opportunities were wasted, as an attempt to supply Dean Whitehead on 12 mintues saw Jones send the ball straight through to Steve Harper.

Habib Beye tried a speculative effort which forced a save from Gordon a minute later, as our defence struggled to contain with the Mags' three-man attack - although that was probably more down to the huge changes forced upon our back line due to injury.

Oba Martins' cross on the half hour mark went straight towards Gordon as the Nigerian missed the unmarked Owen in the middle of the box, before the striker threw himself down in the box, tripping on his own feet after a chase with Paul McShane.

A long range effort from Andy Reid was spilled by Harper, but gathered at the second attempt on 38 minutes as both sides started to look out of sorts in midfield.

Danny Higginbotham gave away a penalty in the final minute of the first half, when his tackle in on Michael Owen resulted in the defender handling the ball on his way to ground. Craig Gordon went the right way from Owen's spot kick, but was unable to stop the ball rebounding off his hand and into the other end of the net.

A minute later, still in the first half, Daryl Murphy gave away a free kick on the edge of the area after pushing into the back of Owen, but Geremi's free kick came to nothing as the first half ended on a bad note for the Lads.

Roy Keane made no changes at half time, which meant that we would be persisting with the toothless 4-5-1 formation - but just 12 minutes into the second half, Kieran Richardson came on for Carlos Edwards, which thankfully allowed Murphy (who had had a rotten first half) to go up front alongside Jones.

Andy Reid came close with a shot just over the bar on the hour mark as we looked composed, but at two goals down, we had a lot of work to do just to get back into the game.

Craig Gordon made a good save to deny Martins on 67 minutes as the Mags came forward for a third goal, seconds after another speculative ball forward to Jones was cut out. Seconds later, a header from Jones forced a low save from Harper in what was probably our best chance of the game so far.

Sunderland won a free kick on the edge of the area on 73 minutes when Faye held Kenwyne Jones back, but Kieran Richardson's effort from the D on the box saw him hit the wall with a weak shot. Higginbotham put a header just wide on 77 minutes as the game started to slow down a bit, before Nicky Butt blasted an effort just over the bar a few moments later at the other end.

Michael Chopra came on for the final ten minutes to a chorus of boos, but the first burst of play after his appearance almost ended in a third goal for his former side, as Danny Collins had to head over Michael Owen's cross for a corner.

In the end though, it was Owen's two first half goals that were more than enough for the Mags to get a win, as once again our toothless one-up-front formation backfired right when we didn't need it to, proving in the process that - for the second season in a row - we are heavily reliant on Jonny Evans for any kind of defensive stability!

Sunderland: Gordon, McShane (sub 87, Harte), Higginbotham, Nosworthy, Collins, Edwards (sub 58, K Richardson), Whitehead, Miller, Reid, Murphy (sub 80, Chopra), Jones. Subs: Fulop, Leadbitter.

Newcastle: Harper, Enrique (sub 87, Edgar), Beye, Taylor, Faye, Barton, Geremi, Butt, Owen, Viduka (sub 76, Carroll), Martins (sub 70, Duff). Subs: Forster, Carroll, Smith.