Time to move on (after Sunderland) with what we do, get on with being Newcastle United | OneFootball

Rights, straight out the traps I need to say this: before anyone starts with the “obsessed marra” remarks, this will be the last thing I write about Sunderland for a while.

Some of you may have noticed that I had a smashing day out down there on Saturday, and while the dust is settling and it’s time to move on, the poll on The Mag about future occurrences of the derby fixture caught my eye.

Now, I was with the majority of 60% voting that we don’t want or need regular derbies. I’ve mentioned why before, but it may have been as far back as the paper version of The Mag (yes, that was a thing whippersnappers), so I’ll just enlighten everyone again on exactly why I don’t want Sunderland anywhere near us.

In a hypothetical example, let’s say the mackems fluke their way to the play-off final and they face West Bromwich , so one of these teams will come to the Premier League. If it’s West Brom, they will play the same game against Newcastle United they would any side in our position, most probably defensive and unadventurous with a resigned air of probably getting beat. Now let’s extend the hypothesis and say that Newcastle are fighting it out with Tottenham for the final Champions League spot. Spurs will get the exact same treatment at WBA as we do, as a side of similar stature and the results would likely be comparable (unless someone turns in a stinker as we did at this season’s play off winners).

Now, let’s assume Sunderland win the play-off final.

The two games against Newcastle would see them raise their game 300%, egged on by the obsession of their crowd. These games would be considerably tougher for United, with higher potential for dropped points, not to mention the possibilities of injury and suspension as the kickabillies trotting out for them try and curry favour with the baying locals. Conversely when our direct competition faces them, Sunderland will likely roll over and whimper, so if we were competing with Spurs it would most probably be an easy six points for them. I’d even go as far as saying there would be a ripple of support if Spurs were winning at the Stadium of Light later in the season, as the obsessed marras knew it was damaging to Newcastle and that counts more than their own team’s fate.

So basically, I believe that Sunderland’s presence in the Premier League is damaging to Newcastle United. As this is my only concern and what does or doesn’t happen to Sunderland is an irrelevance, I’d like them to stay out of the way please. This is even accounting for the fact the likes of Ipswich and Southampton are firmly in the promotion picture, both of which are far trickier away journeys than Saturday’s jolly.

This long-term threat was of course absent in the weekend’s fixture, but the stress was still there building up to the game, that made me wish we’d got anyone else in that draw.

However, I am now of course delighted we got them on so many levels. The Black Cats Bar farce, the huge allocation, the team photo on the pitch, the mess they made of the flag display and the subsequent disbanding of that group and the magnificent destruction of their lesser team on the field. What a day, with the magnificent bonus of some cleansing of the recent poor record in derby games giving them one less thing to crow about.

I have come to realise where some of that pre-match tension came from, as the mackems’ own delusions were allowed to slip into our collective subconscious. In the extended time we’ve been apart they have seen their club struggle terribly as we take giant strides forward, but that fanbase has convinced itself that certain players would walk into our team, that their young team would destroy anyone we have beaten (they repeated this consistently on that daft little message board after we beat PSG) and that some nondescript clogger fresh out of League One would destroy Bruno (Man of the Match) or Joelinton (received the ball in his own half, on the touchline and burst through pretty much their entire team before firing it across the box where our striker would have had a tap in had one of their lot not panned it in first).

The reality check Saturday provided was one of the best bits for me. Reading their responses, the majority have realised how silly it was to consider themselves in with a chance, and there’s clear deep regret that this draw was ever made (by Northumberland born Trevor Steven, conspiracy theory ahoy).

Therefore, I have to say this game has changed my opinion ever so slightly.

For the reasons outlined above, I don’t want Sunderland anywhere near the Premier League, although if they did squeak up with this lot it would likely be another hilarious one season catastrophe. However, I am now incredibly keen to get another cup tie in, as the dread this prospect would spread over Wearside would be delightful. Clearly there’s an understanding of the fixture within the club and it would be all guns blazing regardless of the competition so another hefty win would be on the cards.

Naturally, I’m not in a hurry to go back there, but a match at SJP with United in such ascendancy would be something I’d really like for the majority who couldn’t be among the lucky 6k who enjoyed Saturday. Including my son, who is both too young and lacking in loyalty points for the trip to Wearside, but would relish his first taste of derby action were it to come to NE1.

So, it’s next year’s league cup for the next opportunity but this is a long shot. The mackems need to negotiate round one, which they’ve failed to manage a few times in recent seasons. I also still believe we’ll be in some kind of European competition next year, so they’d need to get through round two as well (which includes most of the Premier League) before they’re even in the same hat as us. Given that they’ll undoubtedly be terrified at this prospect I expect them to bale out deliberately to avoid us, so it’s back round to the FA Cup again, where they have no choice but to be in the third round draw with us. I honestly actually believe that by this time next year they will have reconvinced themselves that they will give us a game, based on a couple of decent results against Plymouth and Millwall coupled with a United defeat at Anfield that has expanded to 57 pages of gleeful crowing on the RTG message board.

If our ball comes out at home I will have everything crossed that their name comes next, whereas in previous years I’d have thought we could do without the hassle. This will be made all the sweeter by the fact that I’ll know the terror being experienced down the road as they pray for the exact opposite.

I can’t stress how mint this has been, with Marco Gabbiadini’s ludicrous rant on the radio about ‘respect’, the cherry on top. Quite how anyone can keep a straight face while saying a club that has made its slogan FTM should be given respect from the M’s in question is beyond me. Here’s a word of advice Marco: have a look at our flags before the Man City game on Saturday (the ones we can produce to a high standard via fan interaction). You’ll see no mention of your club, even in the week after a derby. Check your away end at Ipswich and you’ll see those letters at least ten times among a crowd of a thousand or two. Your mantra is disrespect for us, so you can just eat it right up when you get a bit of it back, the difference being it was at an appropriate time when we’d just beat you easily, whereas your lot are shouting it 24/7. On flags, on shirts, on social media tags and even on the Chairman’s badge at one point.

If you want to address the two way street that is respect, maybe spearhead a campaign for the club to focus on its own identity, instead of the obsession with being Newcastle United’s rivals.

In a similar vein, I’m going to leave it all there until the next occurrence of relevance.

We have a European qualification campaign to get back on track and of course we’re the North East’s only representatives in the FA Cup. Time to move on with what we do, get on with being Newcastle United.