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On this day in 2008, Sunderland beat the Mags by two goals to one. This was our first home derby win of the millennium and featured a now legendary free kick from Kieran Richardson to win the match, an absolute rocket.
This game was an important statement for The Lads as up until then we hadn’t won a home game against our neighbours for 28 years and hadn’t won a derby at all since 2000, where we won by the same scoreline away at St James’ Park.
Some of the important players that started that game for Sunderland were Dijbril Cisse, Kieran Richardson and the captain Dean Whitehead while the opposition had players like Fabricio Colocini, Shola Ameobi and their captain Nicky Butt.
Sunderland started off brightly with Cisse opening up the scoring from a cross into the box delivered in by teammate Malbranque for a tap in into the centre of the goal. As he sent the Stadium Of Light into delirium, he signed off the finish with his infamous acrobatic celebration, his blonde beard shimmering bright as he jumped around in front of the Mackem faithful.
The lead didn’t last for very long, ten minutes to be exact. Newcastle were awarded a free kick from the right side of Fulop’s box as Shola Ameobi was brought down by Chimbonda. They scored from the resulting free kick, Shola with a header to bring the game back level.
Roy Keane and the Newcastle interim manager, Joe Kinnear, would both say in their team talks that they were in with a shout of winning but I’m sure that neither of them could have predicted the goal that came next.
As the second half had begun both sides had chances with Newcastle having the more clear cut chance in particular, as Ameobi skied his chance when he was through on goal and it would turn out costly for Newcastle.
El Hadji Diouf was through on goal moments later as he received the ball through some smart, tight passing from Kenwyne Jones but he was brought down quite literally an inch outside the box by Nicky Butt who was shown a yellow card for the foul. Kieran Richardson stood over the ball, with the wall being so close to the goal it would've been hard for him to get it up and over so he decided to just absolutely smash it into the far corner sending the SoL into bedlam.
Everyone went ballistic for what is a real contender for one of the best goals the Wear-Tyne Derby has ever see. One fan, after receiving Richardson’s blown kisses, had invaded the pitch and started praying at Kieran Richardsons feet; it was truly a sight to see.
2-1 was how the match ended and it was a legendary fixture between the two sides that not a lot of Sunderland supporters are in a rush to forget…