Sunderland humiliate bitter relegation rivals Newcastle in mid-season friendly

NEWCASTLE'S decision to arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly against Sunderland backfired spectacularly when they were thrashed 6-0 at the Stadium of Light.

 

Sunderland are currently two points behind neighbours Newcastle in the Premier League table

 

A Toon side laced with senior pros endured defeat to their bitter rivals for the seventh successive time, with England Under 21 international Duncan Watmore hitting a hat-trick, Steven Fletcher scoring twice and Jack Rodwell adding another.

And though no league points were at stake, the result is a PR disaster for Newcastle, who were 4-0 down at the break, and won't exactly boost morale within the camp.

Long-serving defender Steven Taylor, French imports Sylvain Marveaux, Emmanuel Riviere and Yoan Gouffran plus keeper Karl Darlow and Jamaal Lascelles who scored in Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Watford all featured for the visitors.

 

Both teams are fighting for their lives at the foot of the table and the match raised eyebrows across Tyne and Wear.

While no player expected start the two clubs' next league games - Sunderand entertain Manchester City on Tuesday with Newcastle at Everton 24 hours later - played yesterday, the result maintains Black Cats' bragging rights in the fixture.

Meanwhile, manager Sam Allardyce is awaiting an answer from Lamine Kone after Sunderland revived their interest in the Lorient defender.

Big Sam has twice ended his interest in the 26-year Ivorian this month with the Black Cats initially cooling on a £5million deal and then negotiations breaking down at the French end after a loan move had been proposed.

 

However, the transfer has been resurrected with Lorient vice-president Alex Hayes confirming that the club had received a bid it "couldn't refuse".

Allardyce wants to recruit another defender and an attacking player before the end of the transfer window having already signed Jan Kirchhoff, Dame N'Doye and Steve Harper.

Sunderland are also monitoring full-back Mathieu Debuchy's situation at Arsenal as he looks for regular club football ahead of this summer's Euro 2016 finals, although they face a battle with fellow Barclays Premier League strugglers Aston Villa if they are to strike a loan deal.

A successful swoop for Kone could see Uruguayan defender Sebastian Coates leave Wearside with the former Liverpool player understood to be the subject of talks with Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon.