Beating Sunderland will always be sweet from a Newcastle United perspective.
While Newcastle were heavy favourites for the FA Cup game on Saturday, their dismal away form and lengthy injury list did make things slightly more difficult.
Still, Eddie Howe’s side made light work of the contest and were so dominant they felt confident enough to take a celebratory team photo in front of the away end, much to the annoyance of the home supporters left in the Stadium of Light.
Indeed, the ease with which the Magpies beat their bitter rivals for the first time since 2011 will have been particularly pleasing for the local lads.
Sean Longstaff, a product of the club’s academy, was playing in his first derby at senior level and celebrated the victory on Instagram.
Tino Livramento sends message to Sean Longstaff after Newcastle beat Sunderland
The midfielder captioned a collage of himself in action: “Howay the Lads”, cancelling out the Sunderland-based spelling of “Haway”.
In response, Newcastle teammate Tino Livramento wrote “Some boy.”
Sean Longstaff: Newcastle star needs to step up
While Longstaff impressed last season, it would be fair to say he has struggled this time around.
Elements of his performance against Liverpool on New Year’s Day were criticised by pundit Jamie Carragher and his future at Newcastle was even recently called into question by Dean Saunders.
While that might be somewhat over the top given how much Howe has spoken highly of the 26-year-old, its important he gets back to his best for the run-in to come.
Newcastle face a major battle to fight their way back up to the Champions League spots and will have harder tests to come if they are going to go deep in the FA Cup. If they are to do that, they will need their best players firing on all cylinders.
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