Sunderland made a massive impact to their recent performances which have been detrimental to them sitting at the bottom of the Premier League.
However, after yesterday’s 3-0 victory over Newcastle in the Wear-Tyne derby, they’ll be looking to start the season properly.
With the majority of chances coming Newcastle’s way, they failed to capitalise, and Sunderland punished them with some fantastic counter-attacking football all afternoon.
Just before the half-time whistle Fletcher was brought down in the box, and much to everyone’s surprise, Fabricio Coloccini was shown a straight red.
That proved to be the game-changer, with Adam Johnson hitting the penalty home, Billy Jones converting a header midway through the second half, and Fletcher scoring from a lovely Kaboul assist with 5 minutes to go.
Here are the player ratings from Sunday’s game…
