Neither Newcastle Or Sunderland Have Anything To Crow About

Sunderland fans would have enjoyed themselves as much of the video openly mocked their local rivals, much to the horror of guests Alan Shearer, Chris Hughton, Kevin Nolan and Steve Harper.

However, let's be honest, it was hardly a season to celebrate for the Black Cats either. In fact, while it may amuse them to laugh at Newcastle's misery, they were just as bad and were extremely fortunate not to go sliding down to the Championship hand-in-hand with their neighbours.

It has been a dreadful 12 months which, only at its end, suggests 2010 could be a lot better. Newcastle are looking set for an immediate return to the top flight and Sunderland have come on in leaps and bounds under Steve Bruce.

But, let's not get over-excited. Sunderland remain a mid-table side, despite all the money they have spent and their away form remains as poor with Bruce in charge as it did with Ricky Sbragia.

His squad is too small, he sold quality professionals like Collins to suit his own personal agenda and he needs to strengthen in January or they could easily fade.

The defence remains a weakness, despite the impressive signing of Michael Turner and the team appear to have become over-reliant on the goals of Darren Bent.

At St James' Park, Newcastle have a vastly-overpaid squad packed with experienced players who were supposed to be good enough to keep Newcastle in the Premier League.

Their failure to do that last season still outweighs their achievements this. An eight-point cushion in the automatic promotion places after 18 games has gone some way to making up for things, but never forget the catastrophes and poor performances that got Newcastle into this mess in the first place.

Newcastle, as a club and a set of players, still has a lot of repair work to do and I don't think there will be forgiveness - some simply never will forgive Mike Ashley - until promotion is secured and there is a hell of a long way to go until that happens.

Over-confidence, arrogance and complacency remain the biggest threat to the Magpies promotion push as thing stand, but a flurry of injuries and suspension may also leave them vulnerable, particularly in defence.

We are told Sheffield United centre-back Matthew Kilgallon will almost certainly be joining in January which would be a useful addition to the squad, particularly as he can also play at full-back. That will mean Zurab Khizanishvili will be heading back to Blackburn.

I hope Hughton also makes Danny Simpson's move to St James's Park permanent next month because he is precisely the sort of experienced young player - if that makes sense - they should be filling their squad with.

Marlon Harewood may have also done enough to earn a contract until the end of the season with his two goals against Swansea, although a few more between now and December will strengthen his cause.

Creativity and pace are still severely lacking, but Newcastle will probably have to wait until they can offer top flight football again before they can remedy that inadequacy.

At last, things are looking up for the North-East's big two, but the lessons of 2009 must never be forgotten. It was my worst season as a football journalist and I hope I never have to watch a video as depressing as Sunday night's again....