Newcastle return to winning ways, whilst Sunderland and Boro falter in promotion push: North East Football Roundup

Dominic Scurr, Phil Smith, James Copley and Daniel Wales review the weekend results of Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

Transcript

00:00We start on the south coast as Newcastle took the long trip to Southampton.

00:05Newcastle United came from 1-0 down to beat Southampton 3-1 in the Premier League at St Mary's this afternoon,

00:12making it 10 wins in 11, Perdie House side in all competitions.

00:17It was another slow start, Newcastle have gone behind in four of the five games in 2025 so far,

00:23and Southampton took the lead through Jan Bednarek, header, free header, really sloppy goal.

00:28Bad start from Newcastle, Southampton's first shot in the game, but again, it didn't quite click straight away.

00:36Newcastle's response took about 10 minutes to come, burst into the box, Alexander Isak fouled,

00:43and lengthy VAR check eventually gives the penalty, and Isak equalises and a couple of minutes later puts Newcastle 2-1 up,

00:51and from there, never really looked back. Alexander Isak was then denied a 10-minute hat-trick by Alex McCarthy.

00:57Sandro Tonali, early in the second half, makes it 3-1, his third of the season, his first Premier League goal since his debut.

01:04At the Stadium of Light, Sunderland were welcoming bottom side Plymouth Argyle to Wearside.

01:10Really, really, really disappointed performance and result.

01:14Yeah, I thought something was below par right from the start, to be honest, I don't know if they took Plymouth for granted,

01:18whether Plymouth were much better than they've been recently, whatever the reason was.

01:21Initially, I kind of thought that something set up was wrong, I thought it was a strange game to bring Sam Edd in for,

01:26I thought it was probably a game that required a bit more dynamism before we pass him from deep,

01:30and I thought it was too easy for Plymouth in the first half, but to be fair, I don't think you can put it down just to that.

01:34I think even after Sunderland went to 4-14 in the second half, they arguably got even worse, to be honest,

01:38and I thought you could see Plymouth grew in confidence, created loads of chances.

01:42I think all said and done, I think Sunderland were just well short of their best today for whatever reason,

01:45slot me in possession, gave Plymouth away into the game, and fair play to Plymouth, they took it.

01:50I thought they deserved their late equaliser, I don't think Sunderland deserved to win that game.

01:54No, I don't think they did either, and I think the defending for both goals is really, really poor,

01:58and I think the disappointing thing is that Sheffield United lost last night,

02:02we obviously gained a point on them, but we could have really, really closed that gap to the automatics.

02:06And finally, further disappointment, as Middlesbrough lost away at Deepdale against a mid-table, Preston North End side.

02:15Middlesbrough lost 2-1 at Deepdale against Preston North End, thanks to what was, in the end,

02:22a calamity of errors to give Preston their second and ultimately winning goal.

02:26Preston had taken the lead in the game, and were good value for that lead,

02:30but Delano Bergsog had equalised for the Borough, and at that point,

02:34it looked like Middlesbrough might actually go on to win the game, they had been in control for large parts,

02:40and overall were probably the better side at that point as well, and were showing some of their class

02:44that has got them into the play-off places so far this season, but a comedy of errors

02:49led to Preston's second goal in the end, with Michael Carrick going on to say

02:53that Borough shot themselves in the foot in what was overall a very disappointing afternoon for Borough.