As recently as Friday morning Eddie Howe talked about some results having “bigger consequences than others”. This one most definitely belongs in that bracket.
In completing a Premier League double against Newcastle, Régis Le Bris’s Sunderland consigned Howe and his players to one of their most chastening afternoons at St James’ Park.
When the substitute Enzo Le Fée and the excellent Brian Brobbey combined for the latter to score a 90th minute winner a Tyne-Wear derby that had begun with the visitors presenting Anthony Gordon with a 10th-minute opener, ended with Howe starting fixedly at the turf beneath his feet.
Coming four days after Newcastle’s 7-2 Champions League dissection in Barcelona and at the hands of a seriously under-strength Sunderland it is no exaggeration to say that one of Le Bris’s biggest triumphs of an outstanding season represented an almighty calamity for Howe.
It arrived on an afternoon scarred by some unpleasant pre-match skirmishes between rival fans. Despite the midday kick-off there was a sense of ugliness and it was heightened when in the 52nd minute the match was briefly halted after the referee, Anthony Taylor, received reports that the visiting right-back, Lutsharel Geertruida – who shone throughout, throughly frustrating Harvey Barnes – had been racially abused by fans. The Premier League are now investigating that incident.
