Newcastle 2-0 Sunderland - Live!

GOAL! Newcastle 2-0 Sunderland (Michael Owen, 45 mins)

44 mins Penalty to Newcastle! Owen and Viduka play an extremely cheeky little one-two in the area, and then Higginbottom handles the ball as Owen tries to skip over his sliding challenge.

42 mins Newcastle seem to have relented somewhat and Sunderland have enjoyed a lot of the play for the last few minutes, but they still aren't doing a lot with it. Keane should be happy to get to half-time with the score as it is after the way the game opened. He probably won't be though.

39 mins Andy Reid hacks a spinning effort towards the Newcastle goal from about 25 yards, but even though it bounces awkwardly on the edge of the six yard box, Harper claims gathers without any fuss. Royston Keane is cross, for a change.

36 mins Newcastle's fans let out a half-hearted penalty appeal as Martins goes down under pressure from McShane in the area, but Dean's not having it. Probably the right call - McShane may well have leaned on Martins a bit, but he seemed to have lost control of the ball with his first touch anyway. Besides which the contact started outside the area.

34 mins Geremi whisks a tricky corner over the Sunderland defence from the left, but Danny Collins is the man who gets underneath it at the back post and he nods clear.

32 mins Yeah, there's not a lot happening here right now to be honest. I'm guessing Barry has returned to a healthier shade of pale as another Sunderland foray into Newcastle's half peters out down by the corner flag.

29 mins Sunderland emerge from their half for the first time in several minutes, and even manage to get a shot off, though Whitehead's attempted volley from 18 yards was always going a long way over.

27 mins Micky Owen is sent spinning through the air by a hard, but fair, challenge from Nyron Nosworthy on the edge of the area.

24 mins "Stand up, if you had Sunlun", reverberates around St James' Park as Martins fails to keep a long ball forward in play with his heel down by the left touch-line. Elsewhere in Sky (and Setanta) League, Aston Villa have just finished beating Birmingham 5-1.

22 mins And Whitehead is on hand again with a desperate lunge to steal the ball off Mark Viduka's toes in the box.

20 mins Newcastle are only attacking in fits and starts (which is still a lot more than Sunderland), but when they do they look very incisive. Martins weaves past two defenders into the box from the left and lays the ball across to Owen near the penalty spot, but he can't quite elude Whitehead's challenge.

17 mins "In keeping with recent MBMs, is there any chance of a Glendenning-o-meter to accopmany today's match," requests Bernard O'Leary - making reference to Barry Glendenning (deputy editor of guardian.co.uk)'s pro-Sunderland leanings. "I feel I can't appreciate how badly Sunderland are playing unless I know exactly how suicidal Barry is feeling." I have to admit I haven't read the MBMs you reference there Bernard, but I'm going to say Barry's approaching a Sir Alex Ferguson-esque shade of puce about now.

15 mins Geremi swings in a free-kick from the right after Daryl Murphy brought down Habib Beye, but Dean Whitehead gets it clear. Ian Harte is already warming up on the sidelines for Sunderland.

13 mins It's still Newcastle doing most of the early running here. First Gordon has to palm a Beye drive from 25 yards round the post (OK, he didn't have to, but it wouldn't have gone far wide if he hadn't), then Geremi heads just wide at the near post from the ensuing corner.

10 mins Andy Reid has a speculative dig from 20 yards for Sunderland, but it's easily held by Harper.

9 mins Yup, McShane is off to a stormer here, heading Newcastle's corner from the left past Gordon and into his own net, only to get away with it because Dean had already whistled against Newcastle for some misdemeanour or other. Looking at the replay I actually have no idea what he whistled for to be honest, but there you go.

6 mins Sunderland romp straight down the other end and win a corner, but Carlos Edwards's inswinger from the right is easily dealt with.

GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Sunderland (Michael Owen, 4 mins) My, oh my that was shoddy defending from Sunderland. Geremi had all the time in the world to pick out a cross from deep on the right, and Michael Owen (yes, that Michael Owen - the 3ft 2ins one - actually outjumped Paul McShane in the middle to head past Craig Gordon. A well taken header to be fair to Micky - diverted with power inside Gordon's right-hand post - but honestly.

2 mins McShane is lucky to avoid a booking after scything down Michael Owen as Newcastle break from defence. "That would have been harsh so early in the game," parps our TV commentator. Erm, why? It was a late, bookable challenge.

1 min Away we go then, with Beye failing to control a pass down by the goalline on the left hand side and nudging the ball out for a Sunderland goal-kick.

Some Sky bod just pointed out that: Newcastle have kept three clean sheets in their last four games. When was the last time you could say that?

A fat man in a Newcastle shirt ... is meandering around the pitch butchering what I can only assume is a Magpies anthem. Sky cut to several fat men without shirts in the stands looking nonplussed.

Team news: Abdoulaye Faye and Nicky Butt have both shaken off injuries to start for Newcastle, but Sunderland have to do without the knacked Jonny Evans and Phil Bardsley in defence. Those two are replaced by Danny Higginbotham, who scored the opener in the reverse fixture in November, and Paul McShane, while Carlos Edwards and Liam Miller have also been brought in to replace former Newcastle striker Michael Chopra and Kieran Richardson respectively.

Newcastle: Harper, Beye, Faye, Taylor, Jose Enrique, Geremi, Butt, Barton, Owen, Viduka, Martins.Subs: Forster, Duff, Smith, Edgar, Carroll.

Sunderland: Gordon, McShane, Nosworthy, Higginbotham, Collins, Edwards, Whitehead, Miller, Reid, Murphy, Jones.Subs: Fulop, Harte, Richardson, Chopra, Leadbitter.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)

Preamble: Hello, and welcome to the most north-easterly of all this afternoon's Premier League derbies. Back in November these two drew 1-1 at the Stadium of Light, but that was before Kevin "King" Keegan arrived to save Newcastle from evil Samuel "Sam" Allardyce and his dastardly one-striker formations. On paper there's not an awful lot riding on this one - neither side is going to get relegated at this stage, even if it is still mathematically possible - but it's a Tyne-Wear derby, so if nothing else we should get some fisticuffs in Sky's Fanzone commentary box.