Intrigued by Sunderland fans claiming their team would beat Newcastle United – So I did some digging… | OneFootball

I saw some ‘banter’ on Wednesday night between Newcastle United fans and Sunderland fans.

Turns out the Mackems were playing at home in the second tier to fourth bottom Huddersfield Town.

The mid-match ‘banter’ centred around the number of Sunderland fans, or rather the lack of them, at last night’s match.

After Newcastle United supporters mocked how many empty seats there were, Sunderland fans pointing out the official attendance had been announced as 37,728, so only around 11,000 empty seats, allegedly.

It all becoming even more bizarre the conversation, when then some Sunderland fans were justifying / explaining the ‘11,000 empty seats’ on the fact that with it being midweek, ‘obviously’ the nightshift at Nissan would explain why there wasn’t close to a 49,000 capacity crowd. At this point, I must admit I had no idea if they were joking or not, Sunderland fans come out with so many strange comments about their own club and Newcastle United, you can never be sure when they aren’t being serious…

Anyway, that Nissan nightshift packed with Sunderland fans must be a canny size!

What their club announced (37,728) would have been closer to the truth if it was referring to the empty seats, rather than the ones that were filled.

Anyway, all ended well, Sunderland fans watching their team lose 2-1 at home to fourth bottom Huddersfield.

What it did do though last night, was remind of another bizarre ‘fact stranger than fiction’ claim from the Mackems this season.

Which is Sunderland fans claiming that Tony Mowbray has got their young exciting team playing such brilliant football (their view, not mine!), that they would be very confident of winning against Newcastle United, if / when the two teams meet.

I will leave you to judge on just how long it will be before Newcastle United face the Mackems, unless a cup draw makes it reality.

However, I did wonder just what the facts, you know, the reality, would tell us about these claims from Sunderland fans.

I must admit I didn’t really have that much idea of how they were doing now, so I had to some digging…

Well…

In their last 20 games against other lower league opposition (second tier and below… well, their level basically), Sunderland fans have seen the following results (all competitions, league and cups against teams not in the top tier):

Played 20 Won 8 Drawn 2 Lost 10

Sunderland having lost to Huddersfield, Stoke, Crewe, Leicester, Luton, Preston, Cardiff, Plymouth, Middlesbrough and Ipswich.

I thought I would check out how this compares to Newcastle United and their results.

These are the Newcastle United results against Premier League opposition (both league and cups) since September 2022 onwards.

Eddie Howe’s side have only lost to seven different Premier League level clubs these past 15 months – Villa, Liverpool (x2), Man City (x2), Bournemouth, Man U, Arsenal and Brighton.

The logic of Sunderland fans that their team would currently win against Newcastle United, is maybe only matched by they and their club’s claims that there were only 11,000 empty seats at the Stadium of Light last night AND that those missing ‘11,000’ were on the nightshift at Nissan.