Newcastle United and Sunderland swapped divisions last season, with the Magpies returning to the Premier League and the Black Cats being relegated to the Championship.
While many football fans – especially those who have watched their side suffer a dramatic plight in recent times – are sympathetic towards their Sunderland counterparts, there is one group of fans who are bound to have a very different view, as HITC Sport found out.
One year ago, Newcastle found themselves in the Championship while Sunderland’s form at the start of the campaign had taken a lot of the shine off their most recent great escape that had seen them stay in the Premier League.
Fast forward to the present day, and things could hardly be rosier for the Magpies. Rafa Benitez’s men are now back in the top flight and went into the international break ninth in the table, while their rivals could have barely endured a more disappointing 12 months.
After relegation from the Premier League, the Black Cats appointed Simon Grayson and tried to write a new chapter after years of just about doing enough to pull themselves away from trouble at the highest level.
However, they now sit in the Championship relegation zone with just one win in their opening 11 games, and now appear destined for yet another battle to beat the drop.
So HITC Sport had a very simple question for Newcastle supporters… do they feel sorry for the long-suffering Sunderland fans? Here are some of the, often brutal, answers…
“No, I hope they disappear for the rest of time,” one fan said.
“No I don’t really because they said to us, ‘enjoy the Championship’, well we certainly did. Winning games week-in, week-out. When you look at them now, they can’t even beat Preston North End, they’re struggling at home, their attendances are down and we had some sort of ambition, whereas they don’t have that. At the moment, they’re struggling and I think they need to try and sort it out sooner rather than later otherwise there’s only one way they’re going and that could be League One,” another answered.
But do Newcastle supporters miss the derby days?
“I miss the derby days, I do miss the derby days, but I just like seeing them do really bad to be honest,” a supporter admitted.
“We lose all the time to them but not now. If we got them in a cup game now, it would be an embarrassment for them,” one fan confidently predicted.
Unfortunately for Sunderland fans, they have seen very little this term to suggest that they could have any confidence heading into a derby – whenever that will next be.
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