Sunderland held by Newcastle

Two red cards and two own goals on a busy day in the English Premier League as QPR and Everton also draw.

Carlos Cuellar
A late Demba Ba own goal denied 10-man Newcastle victory at Sunderland in the Wearside derby [GALLO/GETTY]

Two English Premier League matches on Sunday ended in 1-1 draws featuring an own goal and a red card as Sunderland drew with Newcastle United at the Stadium of Light while Queens Park Rangers and Everton also drew at Loftus Road.

Sunderland and Newcastle finished an entertaining Tyne-Wear derby all square with Newcastle scoring at the right end through Yohan Cabaye after three minutes and at the wrong end when Demba Ba put through his own net five minutes from time.

Newcastle were reduced to 10 men after 25 minutes when Cheick Tiote was sent off for a rash kick at Sunderland’s Steven Fletcher.

Despite the late equaliser, Pardew was delighted with Newcastle’s spirit and said: “It was a magnificent effort. We said to the players before the game how important it was to the fans, we’ve now shown how important it is to us.

“Playing an hour with 10 men, if we could have just seen it out it would have been one of the greatest victories ever here. But it’s a great point and I’m very proud of my players.”

Sunderland defender O’Shea added: “Newcastle work hard on their shape with two banks of four and the big men up front, so it was difficult, but we managed to get the goal.

“It was a great game to be involved in, both (sets of) players wanted to win so much, It was vital not to lose the game.”

Honours even

QPR, seeking their first Premier League win of the season, went ahead with a brilliant solo goal from Junior Hoilett who scored after an 80-metre run after only two minutes with the ball taking a slight deflection off Leighton Baines.

Everton equalised after 33 minutes when the ball went in off goalkeeper Julio Cesar’s back after hitting a post following a Sylvain Distin header.

Everton finished with 10 men after Steven Pienaar was sent off for a second yellow card for a late challenge on Park Ji-sung after 61 minutes.

The results had little impact on the league standings with Everton staying fourth on 15 points from their eight matches, three behind Manchester United and Manchester City and seven behind leaders Chelsea.

Newcastle moved from 12th to 11th place on 10 points while Sunderland stayed 14th on eight points having played seven matches.

QPR moved to three points but stayed bottom with a worse goal difference than Reading, who also have three points and along with QPR are the only other team yet to win a match.

Source: Reuters