Alan Pardew said:

"I enjoyed that atmosphere and I could see the experience we had on the pitch coming through. People like Kevin Nolan and Alan Smith knew what it was all about. We have taken four points from the derby this season and we look forward to the next one.

"I’m sure Steve Bruce will say that his team are higher in the league. We still have that to address this season. We have disappointment after conceding late on, but we have a really tough game with Spurs now.

"We have to concentrate on that because you want to aspire to where you can. Sunderland are having a great season and we have to look at where they are.”

"We have had a lot of serious injury time. The fourth official’s info was good but I felt five minutes was a lot. You don’t see many games like that. It was harsh if I’m honest. I thought it was three or four minutes. It boosts the crowd when you get that. The ref said ‘here’s a bit of excitement’, which it proved to be.”

"We were so negative in our approach at Stevenage - this time we got a grip of it in the second half. The disappointing thing was that when we broke we had a couple of chances.

"I am frustrated. I thought the players had a good mentality, started fast and on the front foot. We tried to hurt them. The first half was like a derby with nothing really happening, but the second half was excellent. We got the goal.

“That period when our fans made lots of noise, I thought we would see it out. We perhaps could have got a second. What cost us was a lot of injury-time. It feels like a defeat in the dressing room."But my message was, when you lose key players you have to perform. We did.

“I have been really buoyed by Shola and Leon – they may just have saved me a problem looking elsewhere and it’s not just them. Peter Lovenkrands has done well too and we’ve got Phil Airey just beneath them. Shola and Leon were as good as the strikers at Sunderland in Darren Bent and Gyan. They did very well indeed.

"That is good for us because we have Andy carrying an injury. This has altered my thinking in the transfer window and we might be looking to improve in other departments now.”

On renewed reports of Spurs offering cash plus players for Andy Carroll: 

"They (Spurs) can put together whatever they like. He is not for sale. I am going to say it for one last time, he is not for sale. I hope he will be fit for Saturday - he was certainly smarting in the dressing room today wanting to play but he won’t be playing with one leg – that would be a bit harsh on the other strikers."

77 days after the daydream disbelief that was our 5-1 SJP success, we got the chance to do it all again - although the cast lists had altered somewhat, with Chris Hughton residing on a Sky Sports sofa rather than in the away dugout and various crocked players watching from the stands.

Old puffy face Bruce though was still there in a snug-fitting tracksuit, having spent most of his time since October apparently comfort eating, when not powering his own personal wind farm with overblown apologies and bluster about settling scores etc.

Having berating Tynesiders for a lack of class after their post-match sing-along, the mackem boss then spent the week running up to this game by coming over all coy about what "hilarious" record he'd selected to serenade the beaten away contingent with here at full time.

That of course pre-supposed that he'd be capable of plotting only the second defeat for his hometown team on wearside in over 30 years. And he may reflect - as he queues in Greggs - that perusing motivational manuals may have benefited him more than leafing through the NME for his pre-derby preparations.

The red and whites were simply shocking - and arguably worse over 90 minutes than they'd been on Tyneside, when they could at least point to being a man short for most of the second half. Of course, their late goal this time round was rather more than a consolation. 

Quite why Newcastle failed to complete the double and allow this mob to escape with a sliver of consolation is a moot point. Absences are the obvious answer - the unfortunate unavailability of Andy Carroll due to injury and the farcical suspension of Tiote robbing United of their two form players of the season to date.    

Having recovered from our profound post-Stevenage strop (nowt to do with exiting the cup, everything to do with Tiote's needless appearance and consequent suspension), we were resigned to the appearance of Alan Smith in Tiote's central midfield berth. In fairness though, he'd only attempted one throttling before limping off through injury to be replaced by Danny Guthrie - who proved to be limp in a slightly different way...

That enforced change left Alan Pardew (who'd won, lost and drawn his three previous visits here - all with West Ham) with one less substitute to play with after a scoreless first half in which his side carved out three canny chances - Shola missing the target early on, Coloccini having a shot cleared off the line and Shola again unable to keep his header down as he had here last time round.  

All that was forgotten though when Kevin Nolan flicked to kick and Craig didn't know  - which prompted the usual wild scenes and a mass post-goal chicken dance that seemed to rock the concrete and audibly crack seats, unless the latter sound was actually my knees....

1-0 up then and the mood of apprehension that had kept the locals quiet all afternoon grew and seemed to hang in the air, some of their number making for the exits as early as the 70th minute.
In fairness, what they were watching was the meekest of responses to going behind, what attacks the mackems did muster nullified by a defensive display that can rightly be labelled as splendid.

By contrast to the listless locals, Newcastle seemed in the mood to atone for their own more recent embarrassment. Even Gutierrez was apparently infected by the occasion and started to twist and turn to good effect down the left, whilst retreating when required to help out Enrique.

Both players would advance and try their luck from the edge of the box without hitting the target, while Leon Best turned and put one effort into the side netting, also unsuccessfully throwing himself at one low cross. There was no absence of effort from our number 20 here, just a lack of talent. 

Ameobi meanwhile stayed on, presumably for some sort of talismanic value - although he was a spent force by 80 minutes (only a decade's experience in Shola spotting allows us to make this call, it's not easily discernible to the untrained eye....)

No second goal then, but United still looked remarkably comfortable as the game moved into five minutes of added time; correctly added after some gamesmanship from Newcastle. Dan Gosling was introduced while Peter Lovenkrands also appeared. The latter though frankly looked like the one coming back from long-term injury - maybe the warm-up had taken too much out of the Dane.

For tail-chasing daftness and unpredictability/nuisance value we'd have gone with Ranger at this point, but as football supporters we're of course blessed with the gift of 20/20 hindsight.

Their goal, when it came, was slightly surreal from the far end of the pitch, with the angles making it anything but clear what had happened and the ball seemingly dropping steeply into the net. What transpired as a result though was as predictably ridiculous as usual when these lot score.

Had we been asked to draw a map of exactly where the infidels would make their excursion on to the pitch - and where the criminally culpable stewards would allow them to leave - then we'd have been bang on the money. We're utterly bemused as to why this happens year after year and apparently goes unpunished. What's it going to take - an injury or a serious assault? 

As someone said leaving the ground, if you're looking for reasons why the World Cup won't be coming here, start with blaming whoever allowed this godless dump to be included in the bid. 

There comes a time when banter and daftness has to be put aside and we have to try and go beyond tribalism. These people are just clowns, but of a breed different to those from Tyneside. The bonehead element of both supports may be equally loutish and foul-mouthed, but the black and whiters just don't share this ridiculous, ongoing, turf fetish:

At some point "high spirits" will escalate into something far, far worse. And then, the 47,000 normal people in this ground - and the 51,000 at SJP - will then be unfairly, but inevitably punished by the authorities. All because this "caring, family club" repeatedly fail to control their own pond life.

2008: mackems score, visiting 'keeper confronted on the field by home fans.
2011: mackems score, visiting 'keeper assaulted on the field by a home fan.

Frustration then at missing out on a golden chance to inflict a double drubbing of the unwashed and a genuine belief that Tiote's availability for this game would have strengthened our hand massively - assuming he'd been disciplined enough to ignore the "kill the mackems" chants from the away end...

A home side praised for their upward progress this season remain ahead of us in the table, but three points here would have placed us within touching distance of them. However there's a tinge of realism here that says any away point gained given the team we fielded is a good one. And that's excluding those mysterious forces unleashed in a derby -ie the discarding of the form book and squabbling over bragging rights. Four points to one, six goals to two seems fairly emphatic though.
 
PS: It's claimed that the mackem mirthmeister's requested tune was "Who Let The Dogs Out" by Baha Men Side-splitting eh? Darren Bent wasn't laughing though, as he successfully claimed asylum in Aston soon after, and confirmed that he'd moved for purely football reasons. You don't say....

Biffa