Full-time: Sunderland U21s 2-2 Newcastle U21s
Nile Ranger made his long-awaited return for Newcastle in their U21 Wear-Tyne derby at Sunderland tonight, and marked the occasion with a well-taken goal.
Ranger, who had not made an appearance in the black-and-white of Newcastle for eight months since a reserves outing against Chelsea, played for just over an hour and looked lively throughout.
He particularly impressed early on and did not take long to open the scoring.
The striker gave Newcastle the lead after being played in by Bradden Inman on eight minutes. He coolly slotted the ball past home keeper Jordan Pickford after striding past two defenders.
Ranger almost doubled the lead five minutes later, but his cross-cum-shot went agonisingly over.
Inman later had a decent chance saved by Pickford. Sunderland went down the other end of the pitch and pegged Newcastle back on 19 minutes, with England U21 international Connor Wickham on hand to slide home a cross from Roarie Deacon.
Newcastle skipper Curtis Good could have regained the lead for the visitors after the ball fell to him following a corner, but his powerful shot was straight at Pickford, who parried it away.
In the 36th minute, the Magpies did retake the lead.
The ball fell to the lively Inman just inside the Sunderland box after the home side failed to clear following a Mehdi Abeid effort, and Inman’s subsequent shot deflected into the corner of Pickford’s goal.
Newcastle took their one-goal advantage into half-time, and could have gone further ahead 20 minutes after the restart.
Inman and Ranger combined to set up Marcus Maddison on the inside corner of the box, but he got his left-foot shot horribly wrong and his effort sailed into the stands.
That chance looked set to prove crucial when Wickham was nudged in the box moments later, with referee Gary Beswick pointing to the spot.
However, Adam Reed spurned the opportunity when his subsequent penalty came back off the inside of the post.
Reed's penalty was well struck to the right of keeper Jak Alnwick's goal, and Alnwick dived the wrong way, but the ball bounced away to safety.
Ranger, clearly lacking match sharpness, was withdrawn and replaced by Dennis Knight after 67 minutes, but he will have been pleased with the shift he put in.
Sunderland almost equalised moments later after more good work by Wickham, but Craig Lynch's shot was beaten away by Alnwick to preserve the visitors' lead.
Wickham had a number of efforts, but saw two attempts fly over the bar as the home side pressed for a leveller against Peter Beardsley's men.
It was Newcastle who had the better chances though, and they would have gone 3-1 up but for a great save by Pickford.
Abeid's superb through ball fell perfectly for Jonathan Hooper just inside the box, but Pickford was alert to the danger, closed down the striker and parried the effort away.
Sunderland then withdrew Wickham, who had been their biggest threat but proved largely wasteful in front of goal.
The Black Cats were unable to make any real impact without Wickham, but struck a leveller in stoppage time.
Lynch cut in from the left and struck a left-foot effort into the bottom corner, giving the hosts a deserved point from a hard-fought encounter.
Abeid did have a later chance but he blazed his effort over inside the box to give both sides a point.
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