Di Canio passion inspires Black Cats’ derby delight

Newcastle United 0 Sunderland 3

But another person was uppermost in his thoughts as goals from Stephane Sessegnon, Adam Johnson and David Vaughan earned the Italian his first victory since taking over from Martin O’Neill.

The match was played 24 hours after the first anniversary of the death of his mother Pierina and Di Canio dedicated the success to her.

He said: “I saw my mother’s face just before the kick-off and it was a very emotional moment for me. I was in the dugout the day after she passed away and we won the game — and it has happened again. My dedication goes to her.”

Sunderland fans, happy to accept inspiration from any source, will still hand the bulk of the credit to Di Canio, who knew all about the importance of this North East encounter.

He said: “I’m very happy. It was important to get the three points because there is a big rivalry between the clubs that is famous around world.

“It is a massive step in terms of a result for this area but it is a small step in terms of the table. It’s a little step, but a very important one.

“We are not safe but it’s still a fantastic result for everybody. What the players gave today was special. They were warriors.

“It is the best win of my career so far. I was at Swindon and won the league and many important games in the cup, but it is special when you arrive at the top league in the world and win one of the hottest derbies in the world. They fight for the kingdom in this area so this is a fantastic moment, but it means nothing if we don’t stay up.”

Niall Quinn, the former Republic of Ireland international who was on Sunderland’s board until last year, is certainly impressed by the Italian’s impact.

He said: “You have to say the Sunderland board took some stick for the appointment. I spoke to some of them. Their idea was to lift it, bring some sparkle to the club, and boy has he done that.”

Di Canio’s influence certainly proved too powerful for Newcastle, who showed the effects of their difficult Europa League match against Benfica three days earlier.

They were behind from the 27th minute when Sessegnon advanced, cut inside stand-in left-back Jonas Gutierrez and drove a 20-yard shot inside the post.

Papiss Cisse wasted several chances to equalise, but the turning point for Newcastle was a 60th minute goal by the striker that was wrongly disallowed for offside.

Pardew said: “The linesman denied us and it might have changed the outcome slightly.”

Instead, the outcome was decided by two sublime finishes by Johnson in the 74th minute and Vaughan eight minutes from the end.

Pardew said: “To our fans, the derby is everything and now we have to make sure we put it right in the next five games.

“We couldn’t do much because of the fitness levels of the players. Three or four of them never trained after Thursday’s game.. They had a warm-up and massage, then we sent them out again. They looked really tired.

“We didn’t take the game lightly. We gave everything we could, but it just wasn’t enough and this is up there among my worst moments as Newcastle’s manager.

“Now it’s about us putting in good performances until the end of the season to help erase the memories of this derby. We are under no illusions about the responsibility we have to our fans who we have let down 100%.”