Newcastle v Sunderland. No hiding place now !!
 

Mignolet mystified by bad run
Simon Mignolet admits he cannot believe Sunderland will head into Sunday's derby trip to Newcastle facing a desperate fight against relegation.

Simon Mignolet: Desperate for a derby victory
The 24-year-old Belgium international has been arguably the Black Cats' stand-out player during a difficult campaign, but even his heroics have not been able to prevent the club from slipping into the thick of the scrap for top-flight survival.

Defeat at St James' Park would leave Paolo di Canio's men in deep trouble with just five games in which to save themselves, and when Mignolet looks around the dressing room, he finds that situation difficult to fathom.

Asked if he was surprised at their league position, he said: "Yes, if you see the individual qualities of every single player.

"Obviously, we didn't hope to be where we are now. With the qualities we have, we shouldn't be there."

However, Mignolet's belief that the players, whose performances so far this season cost former manager Martin O'Neill his job a little less than a fortnight ago, are better than results suggest means he is confident they can dig themselves out of a hole.

He said: "Yes, of course, that's fair enough to say. We have more than enough ability in the team to get the points we want before the end of the season."

If Sunderland are to boost their meagre tally of 31 points on Tyneside, Mignolet is likely to have to play a major part, just as he did in the last clash between the two sides at St James'.

The Belgian looked set to follow Thomas Sorensen into Wearside folklore when he saved Demba Ba's 83rd-minute penalty with the 10-man visitors leading through Nicklas Bendtner's successful first half spot-kick.

However, Shola Ameobi, who has so often played well against Sunderland, struck at the death to snatch a face-saving point and extend the Black Cats' wait for a win in enemy territory to 13 years.Sorensen, who kept out an Alan Shearer penalty as Sunderland won 2-1 on Tyneside in November 2000, is still revered in the city as a result, but his latest successor insists tomorrow's game will not be about individual accolades.

Mignolet said: "It's not only the goalkeeper, it's the whole team. The fans look forward to this game all year long and it's very important for them.

"But then again, it's not really important to be a hero. At this moment, it's important to get the points and let's do that."

If Sunderland are to return home with something to show for their efforts, they may need a change of fortune with Mignolet having been beaten by two own goals and a fortuitous deflection in the last two games.

A clean sheet could prove invaluable, and that will be his initial aim.

He said: "Let's hope I can do that because the last couple of goals we have conceded from deflections, it's not really nice to concede like that.

"Let's hope we can now make sure we can get a clean sheet. That would be one part of the job done already, and then we will make sure we score a couple of goals."

Newcastle have made something of a habit of scoring late goals at St James' in recent weeks - Papiss Cisse's 71st-minute strike against Benfica on Thursday evening came relatively early by his standards - and the Black

Cats know they may have to be on their guard for 95 or 96 minutes if they are to emerge unscathed.

Mignolet said: "Exactly. They have scored a couple of goals in the last minute, we know that, so let's make sure we stay on our toes until the last whistle is blown."

It's the big one, crunch time :cool:

Black Cats are Soggy pussies,they deserve to be relegated,teams negative attitude has been a disgrace all season,Dicanio will try to get them to attack but they have forgot what this is. Fortunately for them Toon had hard game on thursday and players ran their socks off,this is there only hope of getting a point, Police have issued a statement saying fans saluting Dicanio will be ejected from stadium,that could be interesting, Im thinking a red card or two is on the cards,just hope its for them, Im sure they will kick us to death and Cabaye has a bad habit of retalliation.

If Titty plays for us,red card is bet of the season.

I'm pleased clattermole isn't playing and I agree about the potential for a red card.

Although it'll probably be from the team 2nd bottom of the fair play league, who have kicked their way through every game this season, maybe even for one of the managers, Cabaye is a nasty little tw@ and a likely bet for a red.

I'm hopeful of a result but I'd take a 0-0 draw right now.

I think it may have come too soon for DiCanio to have an influence on the game and I'm still looking at us getting points from Villa, Stoke and Southampton being enough to keep us up.

wow some game this :clap: o:D

I cant wait for TAYLORMADE'S take on this result..


NEWCASTLE 0 SUNDERLAND 3


:eek!:

Me and Andy watched it together -

http://www.picvalley.net/u/2699/1116...PeVSvnGR2K.JPG

a few dodgey decisions,sunderland showed some ambition and maybe deserved the result,dicanio cant dance,felt like there was a mackem in my living room listening to daft **** quinn commentating,tiredeyes happy with 0-0 before game sums up a mackem,guiterez should go back to argentina,marveaux is a dwarf called dopey,Toon are hopeless at corners,women shouldnt be allowed to run the line, mackems shouldnt be allowed to be a linesman in a derby.

Im devastated and cant believe the result.
But I know in my heart Sunderland are shyte, there supporters are vagrants , we are still 2 points ahead of them and our future is secure in the premier league.

Well done Mackems,first time this season you have tried to play football , I still want stadium of shyte demolished as its a travesty to call it a football stadium.

Im off to get pisshed and dont wish to talk about Mackems ever again.

You're right about the dodgy decisions, we should've had two penalties !!



This made me laugh, what a dick Pardieu is.

http://www.picvalley.net/u/2199/6563...iMIUwC430Q.GIF