Sunderland 3 Newcastle 0: Sam Allardyce offers flavour of the pragmatism to come in quest for safety

Allardyce recorded his first win as Sunderland manager in the Tyne-Wear derby

A frustrated Newcastle manager Steve McClaren (left) during the defeat to Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland

“Of course we want to win even when we don’t deserve to, and there’ll be times when we have to dig in and scrap for the points, but we want to try and win well whenever we can.

“Welcome to my old rival Steve.”

Those two sentences appeared consecutively midway through Sam Allardyce’s first programme notes as Sunderland manager. Did he know something?

Here was Allardyce on Wearside taking charge of a Sunderland team that had not won at home since 2 May and he was not anticipating a flowing, straightforward afternoon.

Allardyce was digging in. His appointment at Sunderland has not been greeted with the scepticism it has met at previous clubs, such as Newcastle United and West Ham United. “Big Sam” means pragmatism and in Sunderland’s situation, that will more than suffice.

After more than 40 years as a player and manager, Allardyce knows that football can be a strange old game and that winning even when you don’t deserve to, is all part of it. “Bizarre,” was a word he used afterwards and that will be applied in future when describing this derby.

There were times when Sunderland were not just inferior to Newcastle, they were inferior to every other team in the Premier League. Then they go and win 3-0.

These are sometimes called smash-and-grab victories. Wearside will take it. Sunderland entered the match as the only one of the 92 sides in the Football League – old money – not to have won a league game this season. Not any more.

This is why you sign Sam Allardyce. As with Tony Pulis, Allardyce brings a certain discipline, organisation and force of will. On yesterday’s evidence, however, that has to be taken on trust and reputation.

Having sounded gung-ho in the build-up, Allardyce sent out an away team at home. It was essentially 4-5-1 and it looked by design that they sat off Newcastle during a first half dominated by the Geordie midfield.

Referring to Newcastle’s 6-2 victory over Norwich eight days ago, Allardyce also said in those programme notes: “They [Newcastle] achieved that by outstanding quality in the final third... that is where we have to limit their time.”

Sunderland filed back. They conceded possession and territory. Despite the match’s scoreline on the final whistle, the corner count was 10-1 to Newcastle. Costel Pantilimon had made two vital saves before Newcastle were reduced to 10 men.

Allardyce wasn’t fooled. He gave a wave to Wearside when they requested one at 3-0, but he did not agree with Fabricio Coloccini’s dismissal, which changed the balance of the afternoon and through the smiles, there was a stern message that Sunderland must improve. Carefree, he was not.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Allardyce said afterwards. “We’ve got to get a lot better than we were today.

“Enjoy the victory, lads, and well done. But we need to get a lot better than this performance we’ve shown today if we’re going to get out of trouble and into mid-table.

“I’m going to be pushing the lads hard to get better than this. That might sound a bit harsh but, for me, I think we need to get better.”

There was personal delight, and relief, that it is now six in six for Sunderland over Newcastle and Allardyce now joins Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet and Dick Advocaat in the freakish statistic of beating Newcastle in his second match as Sunderland manager, having lost his first.

But there is no guarantee about what comes next. In April 2013, Di Canio’s infamous 3-0 sliding-knees victory at St James’ Park was followed by a Newcastle supporter punching a horse. That is recalled more often than Sunderland’s next away day, a 6-1 thrashing at Aston Villa.

Six months later, for Poyet a 2-1 win was followed by a 1-0 loss at Hull. When he departed in April, Advocaat experienced a 1-0 win here courtesy of Jermain Defoe’s screeching volley but that was followed by a 4-1 home loss to Crystal Palace seven days later.

Sunderland, the Allardyce version, go to Everton on Sunday. Their four away games after that are Palace, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. That run piles pressure on home games and at the Satdium of Light in the league, Sunderland have now won 15 of the last 62 matches spread over three seasons and more. That’s one of many statistics Allardyce must change. He must change the performance and mindset of players who can beat Newcastle at home, having been 3-0 down to Norwich here weeks earlier.

Yesterday was good for Sunderland, unquestionably, and heartening in a way, but no one should be deceived. Allardyce isn’t. It’s a long, long way to mid-table safety.