Newcastle v Sunderland Tip

My first thought when looking at this match was this really could go either way. Frankly, that’s the last thing you want to think when pondering a bet! But fortunately, the bookies clearly take a different view which makes the value option much easier to find.

The consensus seems to be that Newcastle are strong favourites; they are a best price of 6/5 with PaddyPower. In contrast, Sunderland are way out at 13/5 with Boylesports. This disparity surprises me considering the impact Martin O’Neill has had on Wearside since his arrival in December.

Admittedly, he had his worst day in the job last week at WBA, the Black Cats suffered a 4-0 defeat, but that can be put down to a bad day at the office for now. Furthermore, the Magpies have had a few stinkers themselves already in 2012. They lost 5-0 at Spurs and 5-2 at Fulham on their last two trips to the capital. There was also a 1-0 defeat at Brighton and they didn’t look too clever surrendering a 2-0 lead at home to Wolves last week.

The Mackems can certainly claim to have had fewer bad days than their neighbours recently. Before last week they were on a run of 8 wins in 11 outings across all competitions this year. O’Neill also knows a thing or two about masterminding derby victories from his illustrious managerial career. At Aston Villa he triumphed in four out of four clashes with Birmingham. Perhaps even more impressively, he won twice as many Old Firm meetings than he lost when at the helm at Celtic.

If Sunderland can sneak away with three points from the home of their arch rivals then O’Neill’s legendary status will be assured.