Newcastle United slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sunderland on Sunday

Alan Shearer has delivered a scathing assessment of Newcastle United’s performance in the Wear-Tyne Derby against Sunderland, labelling Eddie Howe’s side “rotten” and “pathetic”.

The Black Cats battled their way to three points against their local rivals on Sunday afternoon, with Nick Woltemade’s headed own goal ultimately proving enough to separate the embittered North East foes.

And having watched his beloved Magpies slump to a lacklustre defeat against their recently promoted counterparts, Shearer pulled no punches in his post-match analysis.

What did Alan Shearer say about Sunderland vs Newcastle United?

Speaking on the latest episode of The Rest is Football, the Toon icon said: “Newcastle were dreadful. They were rotten. And I was really shocked at how bad they were because, I mean, that is pathetic in any game, let alone in a derby game. Seriously, you're going to play in the biggest game of the season at your rivals... and you've heard all the players all week, ‘We know how much it means to the fans and we're going to do this and we're going to do that’. Well, lads, they did nothing. They were awful, honestly.

“And Eddie made some big calls team-wise and I thought Eddie got it wrong as well. His players who he picked didn't perform for him. Elanga was awful. Gordon was awful. Woltemade was awful. And they offered nothing in forward positions.

“There was no desire, there was no energy, there was nothing. You go away to Sunderland - who aren't a great team - and after half an hour Sunderland had about 70% possession... I was thinking, ‘Am I missing something here? Are we going away to Arsenal or Man City here?’. We're going away to Sunderland... Okay they're hard to beat at home, they're really well organised, they're above us in the table, yeah, but come on, they're not Barcelona or Real Madrid. Are we going to have a pop at them or what? Have a go at least There was nothing from Newcastle. It was really, really awful.

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“They [Sunderland] deserved to win. They were up for the fight. They had the energy. They won every second ball. They won every challenge. Well done, yeah. Newcastle were terrible.

“It's a derby game! You can't have one team at it and one not. If you're going to get beaten, you get beaten going down having a scrap. We had a scrap with a minute to go. That was the only scrap I saw. I would prefer that to what happened in the first minute than the last minute. You can't say, ‘It's a derby game’. Yeah, it is a derby game. So you need to be fighting, scrapping from the off. Not in the 90th minute when it's too late. They [Sunderland] deserved the points. They deserved it more than Newcastle.

“As much as it pains me, by the way, I have to say Dan Ballard, I thought, was absolutely exceptional and has been all season. Granit Xhaka has been amazing. To bring all those players in and to knit them together and to then get them to understand what it means to play for that football club, and then go out and fight and scrap in the way they did. Yeah, well done him [Regis Le Bris] and well done them. They're having a brilliant season as much as it hurts me to see it.”

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