APAdam Johnson wheels away after doubling Sunderland's lead at Newcastle.

If the successive 2-1 away wins at Newcastle seemed a remarkable achievement for Sunderland under Peter Reid, hammering the Magpies 3-0 at St James' Park two seasons running belongs to the world of football fantasy.

But however often Sunderland supporters pinch themselves to check they are not dreaming, the result remains: Newcastle United 0-3 Sunderland.

For the first time in nearly a century, the margin of away victories in Tyne-Wear derbies has been at least three goals from one season to the next. Continue Reading...

PA PhotosSunderland's Niall Quinn swoops to score against Newcastle.

Our 50-50 challenge series continues as club experts Marc Duffy and Colin Randall face off ahead of Saturday's Tyne-Wear derby, when Newcastle host Sunderland at St James' Park in the Premier League.

Colin is ESPN FC's expert on all things Sunderland and is the founder and editor of Salut!Sunderland. He was the Daily Telegraph's Paris bureau chief and also contributed to the Guardian.

Marc is a long-time blogger for ESPN FC, is a regular at St James' Park and is one of our resident Newcastle experts. Continue Reading...

GettyImagesNacho Scocco had a successful spell at Newell's Old Boys.

Name: Ignacio Scocco
Age: 28
Club: Internacional/Sunderland
Position: Forward
Nationality: Argentine

Sunderland's victory over Stoke on Wednesday night saw the Black Cats move out of the Premier League drop zone for the first time since August, with manager Gus Poyet bringing a sense of direction and stability at a club that was in dire straits early in the campaign. Poyet has united the group he inherited and set about extracting the best out of those who were clearly underperforming, with his side also reaching an unlikely League Cup final in the process. Continue Reading...

GettyImagesJohnson celebrates after his rich vein of form continued against Stoke.

The straightforward news value of Sunderland's narrow, nervous win over Stoke City is that the three points take Gus Poyet's team out of the bottom three for the first time since August, long before the Uruguayan replaced Paolo Di Canio.

The result was what mattered to all but a few hundred visiting fans among the 34,000 supporters who turned out at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, although most hoped for a rather more comfortable passage out of the relegation zone. In the end, though, they were grateful that it happened at all. Continue Reading...

AllsportSunderland are into the Capital One Cup final but their past history with Wembley does not bode well.

In the proud ancient history of Sunderland football club, there have been six top-flight titles -- we ought to draw a veil over just how long ago the last of them occurred -- and just two victories at Wembley. I missed them all.

The first was in 1937, and even I am not old enough to have been available to attend on that occasion, though I did meet a man on holiday last year who still had the matchday programme bought by his father, who was there.

For the record, Raich Carter, Bobby Gurney and Eddie Burbanks scored in a 3-1 defeat of Preston North End in that season's FA Cup Final. Continue Reading...

John Peters/Getty ImagesA grinning Gus Poyet has Sunderland on the brink of the club's first trophy since 1973.

In the style of the satirical magazine Private Eye, these pages have an apology to make. We are sorry if the impression has ever been given that we believe penalty shootouts to be a mere lottery, an unworthy manner of settling great sporting contests. This is not the case, as we now freely acknowledge: when Sunderland win, shootouts sort out men from boys, offering excitement and drama of the highest order.

Manchester United 2-1 Sunderland. Sunderland win 2-1 on penalties

- Jolly: Three things: Man United vs. Continue Reading...

Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesFabio Borini's goal swung momentum in Sunderland's favour in their 2-2 draw with Southampton.

As Southampton outclassed Sunderland for much of the first half on Saturday, I kept reassuring myself that the process of bouncing back from a catastrophic start to the season is bound to be slow.

But with Gus Poyet's team making recent victories look freakish, the nerves began to fray. That they managed to salvage a point, with chances to make it three, at least kept hope alive and not just on a life support machine.

- Report: Sunderland 2-2 Southampton

Admirable a job though he had done, Poyet cannot be expected to work miracles with the limited squad he inherited. Continue Reading...

PA PhotosGus Poyet reacts to Emanuele Giaccherini missing a golden chance for Sunderland.

We have been this way before. Earlier this year, I wrote on these pages about an important Sunderland home game against Southampton, which had followed another important game at home to Stoke City.

With those eminently winnable matches, Sunderland under Paolo Di Canio had the chance to end a rotten season by clinching their own Premier League safety.

They drew both, and went on to lose the final game at Tottenham Hotspur, that result having no importance to either club; Arsenal grabbing fourth position to deny Spurs a Champions League place and Wigan having already been relegated after failing to turn FA Cup euphoria into an unlikely escape act. Continue Reading...

At one of the nicest of Premier League stadiums, Craven Cottage, reached by a pleasant walk through the Bishop's Park on the banks of the Thames, there is a wonderful rarity of modern football: the neutral or mixed section.

It brings back memories of times when opposing supporters would stand shoulder to shoulder, enjoying friendly banter without trace of menace or hatred. Around the overpriced food and drink stalls, fans of both clubs and neither mingle happily enough. Over-romantic? Continue Reading...

Ian MacNicol/Getty ImagesGus Poyet's Sunderland hope to ride the wave of Capital One Cup success into Saturday's fixture with the Cottagers.

Probably the second best thing to happen in the professional life of Gus Poyet this week was the merciless assault by Manchester City on West Ham United.

Sunderland's 2-1 defeat of Manchester United on Tuesday will have given him the greater satisfaction. But he has reason to be thankful that the 6-0 savaging of the Hammers quickly overtook it as the chief talking point of the first legs of the Capital One Cup semi-finals.

- Report: Poyet: Johnson can be the difference

Rarely can it have been more important to bring players down to earth after a notable victory and to prepare them for an arguably bigger match. Continue Reading...

Matthew Peters/Man Utd/Getty ImagesPhil Bardsley and Sunderland came through in the clutch to down United 2-1.

Happily, Sunderland put on another tremendous cup display to defeat Manchester United and bring one step closer the prospect of a Wembley trophy for the first time in 41 years.

Sadly, beating United no longer has quite the ring it had. Everyone's doing it, or so it seems.

- Report: Sunderland 2-1 Man United

But do not let United's sorry form -- three successive defeats, out of the FA Cup, lagging well behind in the Premier League and unlikely to achieve much more in the Champions League -- detract from a fine, spirited effort from the team occupying bottom place in the league. Continue Reading...

Manchester United and Sunderland have differing definitions of disappointment and crisis.

For followers of the Red Devils, failing to win any competitive game is bitterly disappointing. Losing five home matches in as many months is a crisis. Life has taught Sunderland fans to place the dividing line between success and failure at a different point. Success currently would be a couple of wins in succession.

Mark Runnacles/Getty ImagesBeating United in the league cup won't paper over the fact that Sunderland are propping up the Premier League table.

Yet a string of games at the Stadium of Light, the early ones easy enough but later including two challenging opponents in Southampton and Chelsea, has led Gus Poyet's team to the semifinals of the Capital One Cup, with the first leg at home to Manchester United on Tuesday night. Continue Reading...