An Instant Reaction to Newcastle United 0, Sunderland 3

Well, that sucked.

Newcastle will have plenty of reasons to complain about that one - the disallowed Cisse goal chief among them. There's no excuse, however, for losing to that team. Newcastle had no attacking intent until they were scored upon, they were lazy going into their challenges, and overall, they were tight. Forget that it was Sunderland, if you can. That's the seven hundredth time (seems like it, anyway) they've taken on a team in or around the relegation zone and come out not only on the losing end but looking like the worse team. They were toothless on corners. Mathieu Debuchy didn't want to play defense. Yohan Cabaye looked like St James' Park was the last place in the world he wanted to be. Jonas Gutierrez was, as he has been all season, a shell of himself. Nobody could shut down Adam Johnson. It was a shocking display.

Sunderland earned their day in the sun. They were due. It had been 12 years since they'd won at SJP. It was terrible timing for our boys, though, and the relegation talk persists this late in the season. I'd still rather support this team than the other. Let's just move on.