Ba evokes memories of Shearer on night of misery for United

WHO said the north-east wouldn’t have a say in the outcome of this season’s Premier League title?

The region’s once proud description as a ‘hotbed’ may now be used in mocking self deprecation by the locals, but at least their teams are doing their bit to make life hard for the Premier League’s movers and shakers.

In the wake of Roberto Mancini seeing his leaders holed beneath the waterline in stoppage time at Sunderland, Manchester again had so much to answer for, United humbled on the banks of the Tyne for the first time in a decade.