Premiership: Newcastle win to go second

Sunderland 0 Newcastle 1

Nikos Dabizas was the toast of the Toon after snatching Newcastle victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

He struck 64 minutes into a pulsating encounter to secure a 1-0 win for Bobby Robson's side.

The scoreline could not begin to tell the story of a tight derby clash which saw United keeper Shay Given produce three stunning saves.

The best of them came six minutes from the end from Kevin Phillips' curling shot, while opposite number Thomas Sorensen also denied Dabizas, who hit the bar as well.

The visitors perhaps had the better of the possession, but really only threatened to carve the Black Cats open on one occasion when Jermaine Jenas and Aaron Hughes combined to feed Craig Bellamy.

The Welshman pushed the ball beyond Sorensen into the net, but the home supporters had seen the offside flag.

United's more accurate passing game meant they retained the ball slightly better than Sunderland, who had Jody Craddock and Joachim Bjorklund to thank for repelling a series of high balls into their box.

As the half wore on, it was the home side who started to create the clearer openings and force Given to earn his money.

The Irishman, who had already seen Kevin Kilbane prod a close-range shot over, denied Phillips with a superb point-blank save seven minutes before the break.

And he excelled himself again as the whistle approached, getting down to the foot of his left post to turn Kilbane's stinging drive away for a corner.

Peter Reid decided to replace Quinn with Patrick Mboma at the break and, although he had an immediate effect in the opposition half, it was in Sunderland territory where his input was most telling.

Laurent Robert's free-kick, after Mboma rashly brought down Hughes, was flicked on by Shearer and Dabizas turned up at the far post to head firmly past the helpless Sorensen.

Reid threw Thomas Butler on for Schwarz with 20 minutes remaining but, although Kilbane tested Given with another long-range effort, it was United who started to dominate again.

The game was far from over though, and it took a covering headed from Robert deep inside his own area to keep the home side out after Mboma had twisted and turned his way past Andy O'Brien.