One Hundred Years to the day since we beat Newcastle 9-1 at St James’s*, Pete Sixsmith takes a look back at Roy Keane’s One Hundred Days at Sunderland ….
(* scroll down or click here to read Colin Randall’s heart-warming account of that famous victory)

As the Keane era ends, I thought it might be a good idea (and a chance to recycle some old comments) to look back at the Roy Keane Highs and Lows. Things that stand out for me are, in no particular order:

Derby and Leeds (away); I think it made us realise that we had a manager who could bring in decent players (Miller, Kavanagh, Wallace, Connolly) and that he could encourage them to play simple pass and move football. Great away followings too.

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We all need cheering up just now…..so forget, for a moment, the current predicament of our club, the exit of Roy Keane and our logical fears about tomorrow’s prospects at Old Trafford. Instead, let us transport ourselves back to the St James’ Park of exactly 100 years ago today. On Dec 5 1908, as every schoolboy ought to know, Sunderland thrashed the Mags 9-1. And it was all Steve Bennett or Rob Styles’s doing, firing up the Lads for a second-half blitz by giving Newcastle a dodgy penalty on half-time. This is how I have reported it for The National in Abu Dhabi (it appeared yesterday so I have changed “tomorrow” to “today”)……

Famous win is still tale of the century

No member of the Toon Army, as supporters of Newcastle United like to be called, will thank me for drawing wider attention to the centenary of one of the most momentous league games in English football history.

But then, since I follow their north-eastern rivals Sunderland, Newcastle fans would probably feel disinclined to thank me for anything.

All the same, duty obliges me to record that 100 years ago today, having made the short journey to Newcastle, Sunderland did not so much beat the Magpies as pulverise them.

Newcastle 1 Sunderland 9. That was how it finished, in front of 56,000 fans with many more locked out. And it remains the joint biggest away victory in the English top flight, what we now call the Premier League (Cardiff City were walloped by the same score at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1955).

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