The young Newcastle United stars took on Sunderland last night.

An under 21s league derby clash on Tyneside.

The first time Newcastle United Under 21s had been allowed to play a league game at St James’ Park in 18 months.

More than 5,000 United fans turned up to watch, the highest reserve team league crowd at SJP in 22 years.

Matthias Jaissle was one of the 5,000+ in attendance and the match didn’t disappoint…

Ahead of this derby, the Sunderland Under 21s had played five league matches and picked up a total of 10 points, whilst the Newcastle United Under 21s were pointless after having played three league games.

United started well and Johnny Emerson saw an early shot saved by Sunderland goalkeeper Isaac Allan, then Matheos Ferreira put an effort just wide.

However, with 37 minutes on the clock it was Sunderland who took the lead through Samuel-Ogunsuyi as he met a free-kick and diverted the ball into the net.

Things looked to be going against Newcastle as just before the break Johnny Emerson looked to have scored but instead the ball hit the inside of the post and bounced straight to the keeper.

The 16-yer-old NUFC keeper Roman Dowell (and England Under 18s international) then produced a great save to stop Sunderland going two up via a header from a corner.

Finally the Newcastle United youngsters got what they deserved on 58 minutes when Kyran Thompson smashed home a powerful equaliser.

The match was to stay level only five minutes, as Scott gave the young Mackems a 2-1 lead.

This could have easily see the United youngsters fold after having worked so hard to get the equaliser but on 70 minutes they were back level.

Seung-soo scoring a brilliant goal (watch below), cutting in from the left before curling the ball into the top right-hand corner.

Then just when it looked like the game was going to end up a four goal thriller, it became a five goal one.

Five minutes from the end of the 90 it was Newcastle United taking the lead for a first time through Vakhtang Salia, Fitzgerald’s cross from found the Georgian striker and he cleverly headed the ball into the bottom far right-hand corner.

A feisty encounter saw nine cards in total shown, Sunderland winning that battle 5-4.

Those yellow cards and lectures from the busy referee helped give the young Mackems eight minutes of added time to find the equaliser, but United held firm and saw out a superb character-filled 3-2 victory over their derby rivals.

All three goals from our Under-21s’ Tyne-Wear derby victory 👊 https://t.co/twPrYW86ni

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) October 26, 2026

Newcastle United Under-21s: Roman Dowell, Henry Johnson, Dylan Charlton, Logan Watts, Miodrag Pivaš, Scott Bailey (c), Johnny Emerson (Kyle Fitzgerald 67), Mason Miley (Jayden Kouossu 78), Afner Cá (Vakhtang Salia 51), Kyran Thompson (Alfie Seldon 67), Matheos Ferreira (Park Seung-soo 67).

Unused subs: Luke Craggs, Alex Walpole