Adam Johnson's late winner gives Sunderland derby day delight

A week that began with Newcastle dreaming of a cup semi-final and wiping the smiles off Sunderland faces has turned into a nightmare. Thrashed by Tottenham Hotspur in the Capital One Cup and humiliated again by their biggest rivals on home soil. It will not be a very merry Christmas on Tyneside.

As for Alan Pardew, he rightly collected the award for manager of the month for November. Nobody should forget the fact that his Newcastle side won six games on the trot to move out of the relegation zone and into European qualification contention, but he is tarnished by his woeful record in the Tyne-Wear derby.

A picture of Pardew clutching his Manager of the Month trophy with a sparkling white smile was placed prominently in the match programme, but his time at St James' Park has been full of peaks and troughs. Six wins in a row has now become three defeats on the spin, or one win - albeit over Chelsea - in six.

Newcastle are a mid-table side that simply do not look good enough to live up to the top-eight expectations of their fans. Pardew's smile had turned to a grimace by the end. Whatever he goes on to achieve at Newcastle or elsewhere, he will always be known as the first manager in the history of this most passionate of parochial clashes to have lost four times in a row. When so much importance is attached to two games a year in these parts, no manager can afford to have such a miserable record.

Pardew has been in charge of Newcastle eight times in a Tyne-Wear derby and has won only once. Ultimately, this was just another defeat, three points lost at home for only the second time this season, but it felt far more damaging than that.

It could be a bleak midwinter for Newcastle, and the unrest that pushed Pardew to the brink of the sack in October may return if his side do not lift themselves quickly.

For Sunderland, derby wins will never feel routine, even if they have become just that. There was no repeat of the 3-0 winning margin of the previous two years, but their supporters will not care. The Black Cats feel like north east England's top dogs again.

In a tight game, Sunderland created the better chances and would have been furious with themselves if they had lost. Connor Wickham should have scored in the first half with a free header at the far post, and Steven Fletcher rattled the bar with a volley before half-time.

After the break, Newcastle defender Steven Taylor had to leave the pitch briefly for treatment to a head wound after colliding with a post while preventing Fletcher scoring. In his absence, Jordi Gomez was presented with the perfect chance, but the midfielder got his feet in a tangle and inexplicably failed to hit the target.

Adam Johnson should also have hit the back of the net. Having done the hard bit to get around Fabricio Coloccini, the winger rolled his shot wide with just rookie goalkeeper Jak Alnwick to beat. Alnwick had actually done well, making two decent saves to deny Wickham twice in the first half. He could not be blamed in any way for Newcastle's defeat.

Infuriatingly for the home fans, the goal came just as Newcastle were starting to dominate. Moussa Sissoko was denied a goal by a brilliant save from Costel Pantilimon after Ayoze Perez had shot straight at the Sunderland goalkeeper after turning superbly to get away from Wes Brown.

St James' Park sensed a winner and roared Newcastle on. They were right, but it was Sunderland who scored it. A Newcastle corner was cleared and Johnson picked the ball up in space. He knew what was on. So did Taylor, who tried to scythe him down on the half-way line, but Johnson kept his balance. Many would have gone down, but Johnson could see the Newcastle defence were not organised, and Sunderland had men galloping forward to join him on the counter-attack.

He moved the ball on to Fletcher and advanced into the area. Fletcher found Will Buckley, who picked out Johnson. Finally, someone kept their composure in front of goal and the Sunderland fan smashed home his third goal in as many wins for his team at St James' Park.

Newcastle knew they were beaten, and the five minutes of added time failed to deliver a single moment of danger for Sunderland.

There was not an enormous deal to choose between these two old rivals, but one moment of class from Johnson separated them in the end. (© Daily Telegraph, London)