Adam Johnson’s late winner earned Sunderland a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United in a frantic Premier League Tyne-Wear derby at St. James Park on Sunday.
With a minute remaining, and seconds after Moussa Sissoko had almost won it for host Newcastle, Johnson kept his cool to slam a shot past keeper Jak Alnwick and wrap up a fourth successive win for Sunderland in the fixture.
It was only Sunderland’s third league victory of the season and lifted it to 14th place with 19 points. Newcastle, which has lost three matches in a row in all competitions since beating leader Chelsea, is ninth on 23.
A typically feisty affair did not take long to come to the boil with yellow cards being shown to Sunderland’s Sebastian Coates and Newcastle’s Fabricio Coloccini inside 10 minutes.
Sunderland had the better of the first half but could not fire it in and its profligacy in front of goal carried into the second half.
Newcastle gradually built some momentum. Perez forced a fingertip save from Sunderland keeper Costel Pantilimon with a curler while minutes later Sissoko marauded forward and narrowly failed to connect when Sammy Ameobi played the ball across goal.
Pantilimon tipped a thunderous Sissoko drive over the bar but Sunderland then broke down the other end and Will Buckley played in Johnson to fire the winner.
The result: Newcastle United 0 lost to Sunderland 1 (Johnson 90).