Things go from bad to worse for Sunderland after it emerges that Newcastle fans received free beer at Stadium of Light

Sunderland's miserable week was compounded on Saturday afternoon, when Newcastle United supporters were given free beer after their emphatic 3-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.

Things didn't get off to the best of starts ahead of last weekend's much-anticipated Tyne–Wear derby after the League One club allowed Newcastle supporters to decorate their £600 corporate area.

As a result, black and white banners featuring messages aimed at Sunderland were displayed, including a "Cheer Up" sign behind the bar, which references a famous song about former Black Cats manager Peter Reid.

Sunderland would take the banners down before releasing a statement apologising to supporters. "Sunderland AFC acknowledges that a serious error in judgement was made in relation to Black Cats Bar earlier this afternoon," it read.

It was, however, too late as the images had already gone viral.

Sunderland rolling out the red carpet for the visiting Newcastle fans. Unforgivable. pic.twitter.com/wv0j4zNwFR

— The72 - We Love the #EFL (@_The72) January 4, 2024

Soon after the incident, Newcastle secured their place in the FA Cup fourth round with a dominant performance over their local rivals, as goals from Daniel Ballard [OG] and Alexander Isak [2] sealed the priceless win.

Things soon went from bad to worse for Sunderland, when a Wi-Fi outage meant that Magpies fans were given free beer after their win in the derby.

That's right. Newcastle supporters received free alcohol at the Stadium of Light on Saturday when all the card machines went offline because of a lack of internet.

A fan on social media wrote: “The best bit for me was when the card machines went off and we were given free pints. Made up for the fact we had to wait two hours to get out of the ground.”

In total, 6,000 Newcastle fans made the short trip to Sunderland for the FA Cup third-round tie. It was an afternoon they will never forget, that's for sure.