The atmosphere was electric, the football soporific; two ordinary teams producing an ordinary match, and a point apiece which does neither of them much good. Sunderland were marginally the better side, but the poverty of their finishing leaves them without a home win against the old enemy for 27 years. Roy Keane, disappointed with the outcome of his first Tyne-Wear derby, continues to insist that his charges will avoid a quick return to the Championship, but 10 points from their first 13 games does not augur well. Newcastle fans, too, are down in the mouth – two defeats and a draw from the past three matches doing nothing for Sam Allardyce’s popularity. “That’s your interpretation”, Allardyce said. “We’re nine points better off than we were at this stage last year. My glass is half-full, yours is half-empty.”

Sunderland have not kept a clean sheet since the season’s opening day, when they beat Tottenham 1-0, Newcastle have been unable to keep one away, so the outcome was hardly a surprise. The prosaic quality of the football, however, did no sort of justice to the high-decibel passion of a capacity crowd. Both managers said afterwards that avoiding defeat in the derby was their priority, an attitude which produced a fractious, no-frills scrap. Steve McClaren was in attendance, but the England coach will have gleaned nothing of note, apart from the fact that Michael Owen is fit, if not exactly razor-sharp. Promoted to the captaincy in the absence of Geremi, who was dropped, Owen had two scoring opportunities but failed with both. McClaren, who on Friday selected Alan Smith as a striker for the forthcoming matches against Austria and Croatia, will also have noted that Newcastle continue to use him in midfield.

There was also a reminder, if any was needed, that Joey Barton is still the unpleasant character whose attitude alienated the rest of the international squad when McClaren picked him for his one and only cap nine months ago. Just before half-time, Barton kicked Dickson Etuhu horribly high, provoking an angry reaction and a bout of pushing and shoving which continued as the two players made for the tunnel.

“Not good”, was Allardyce’s verdict, but the Newcastle manager added: “There were many things that went on like that – from both sides.” Keane, possibly remembering his own feud with Alf-Inge Haaland, was not about to condemn the incident. “I’m not bothered by a tackle that is slightly high”, he said.

“These things happen in derby games. You give and take. If you hadn’t mentioned it to me, I wouldn’t have remembered it.”

The revolving door that is the Premier League, and the evolution of both teams, was reflected in that there were just two survivors from the last match between these two old rivals, 18 months ago – Sunderland’s Danny Collins and Charles N’Zogbia of Newcastle. On this evidence, there will have to be more changes before either manager gets where he is aiming to go. Keane said: “I’d like to be top of the table, but where are we – 15th? That’s about fair. I’d say we’re probably the 15th best team in the Premier League.”

This is probably an overestimation of their modest ability. Assertive in the first half, with Grant Leadbitter setting a high tempo in midfield, Sunderland had enough chances to have settled the outcome before the interval, but spurned them all. Ross Wallace ought to have given them the lead after 15 minutes, when he lifted his shot wastefully over, Steve Harper made decent saves from Ian Harte and Michael Chopra and Leadbitter cost himself the man of the match honours by wasting an inviting cross from Wallace with an inaccurate header from six yards. Allardyce deployed Smith just in front of his back four to negate Kenwyne Jones’s aerial power, and was satisfied with the results, but the Trinidadian striker would still have had his fifth goal in 10 games but for the reaching save with which Harper kept out his header at the start of the second half.

At this stage, Allardyce, fearing the worst, appeared in the technical area for the first time. An inspirational arrival? Hardly. Sunderland took the lead they deserved in the 51st minute, when a quick, short corner, taken by Jones, caught the Newcastle defence unawares and Leadbitter’s cross was headed in powerfully at the far post by Danny Higginbotham.

Sunderland needed to draw breath and defend their lead, instead they conceded a ghastly equaliser in the 65th minute. James Milner delivered what was intended as a cross from out on the left, but Craig Gordon, distracted by Paul McShane’s air shot at a clearance, let the daisy-cutter creep inside the far post. McShane did him no favours, but a goalkeeper who cost £9m is expected to keep his eye on the ball. Lifted by their good fortune, Newcastle stepped on the gas, and might have taken the lead had Owen’s shot from 12 yards not been a weak one. Sunderland were much closer late on, when Chopra, the Geordie striker playing against his old club, headed against the crossbar from Harte’s corner. Keane said: “Fair play to Newcastle, they bounced back well. Sam will be slightly happier than me.” He was right. The man they call “Big Sam” wore a big smile afterwards. “I’m not bothered whether we were fortunate or not”, he said. “The important thing is that you don’t lose in a derby. We couldn’t afford to lose. It was unthinkable.

“Sunderland outmuscled and outbattled us in the first half, putting on a lot of pressure through Jones, who is a handful. But our response once we had scored was very good. That’s the first time this season that we’ve come back from a goal down to get something away from home, which is progress.”

Match stats
(Sunderland/Newcastle)
Shots on target (incl goals) 3/3
Shots off target 4/12
Blocked shots 2/8
Corners won 4/7
Total fouls conceded 17/10
Offsides 4/0
Yellow cards 2/1
Red cards 0/0
Possession (%) 50/50

Star man: Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland)

Player ratings:

Sunderland: Gordon 5, McShane 5, Nosworthy 6 (Collins 25min, 6), Higginbotham 6, Harte 5, Edwards 5, Leadbitter 7, Etuhu 6, Wallace 6 (Stokes 72min), Chopra 7, Jones 8

Newcastle: Harper 6, Taylor 6, Faye 6 (Beye 61min), Rozehnal 6, N’Zogbia 6, Milner 6, Smith 6, Barton 6, Emre 6 (Geremi 88min), Owen 6 (Martins 83min), Viduka 7

Yellow cards: Sunderland: Chopra. Newcastle: Taylor, Faye

Referee: M Atkinson
Attendance: 47,701