Kevin Phillips: Sunderland need Tyne-Wear success to revive fortunes
By Kevin Phillips
Tuesday 29 October 2013 12:13, UK
Image:Boost: Sunderland's derby win last season helped them avoid the drop - and they need another victory over Newcastle on Sunday, says Phillips
Tyne-Wear derbies are always special occasions - but this Sunday's meeting is going to be even more intense than usual.
Disappointing
We had a disappointing night on Monday, losing 4-1 to Fulham at Selhurst Park.
We had identified that game as a potential three points and started well, going one up, but there wasn't a lot we could do with the wonder strike from Pajtim Kasami - and Steve Sidwell's second for them wasn't bad either.
Those goals knocked the stuffing out of us and after a couple of lapses in concentration we were suddenly 4-1 down and it was game over.
Gary Neville talked about the shift in momentum Kasami's goal had on Monday Night Football, and it's true. Apart from the traveling Fulham fans, the whole stadium went quiet when that went in.
It doesn't get any easier for us now, with Arsenal on Saturday, but we need to pick ourselves up and go again.
We'll look back on what we did well and didn't do well in that game when we return for training on Thursday and certainly work on our set pieces after Fulham scored twice from that area.
But there are always surprises in football and hopefully we can cause one on Saturday against the league leaders. It's important we stick together.
