Sunderland won a football match last night, and that is not insignificant in itself given that they beat the team from 12 miles down the road on their home turf for the first time in almost a decade.
But somehow Newcastle United still managed to corner the majority of the night's drama; there was more than one game being played out on Tyneside last night.
The theatre began before the kick-off, too, when Ruud Gullit effectively dropped Alan Shearer by not recalling him from suspension. And it continued when Newcastle once again took the lead in a match, through Keiron Dyer's first goal for the club, only to lose it when Niall Quinn supplied a 64th-minute equaliser, and then to lose all the points when Kevin Phillips pounced with 15 minutes to go to chip the winner over Tommy Wright after the emergency goalkeeper had made a fine save.
Shearer was on the pitch by then, having replaced Silvio Maric belatedly, but he was unable to alter the outcome, although Sunderland's substitute, Kevin Ball, almost scored a dramatic last-minute own goal.
The focus slipped immediately back on to Gullit and his reasons for omitting Shearer. That is one story, another is Newcastle's failure to win a league match since the first week of April. This season they have one point from 15. And as if it were not atmospheric enough, the night played host to a downpour of biblical proportions that made fluent football barely possible.
Aside from Shearer, Newcastle's team news would have been dramatic enough anyway. Wright, 36 on Sunday and signed on loan from Manchester City on Tuesday morning, was back in goal at St James' Park six years after being sold by Kevin Keegan, with Jon Karelse, Gullit's Stg-£750,000 purchase a fortnight ago absent injured.
Directly in front of Wright was Nikos Dabizas, the Greek who until yesterday was another persona non grata in the Gullit regime. To add to the intrigue, another player thought to be on his way out of Tyneside, Maric, started as young Robinson's token support.
Sunderland would have had to recall Jimmy Montgomery to equal the effect of Newcastle's team-sheet, but they made notable changes, too, bringing back Steve Bould and, up front, Quinn.
In an unsurprisingly frenzied opening it was Quinn who was the busier as Sunderland used the width offered by Nicky Summerbee from the right wing. One early, incisive Summerbee cross had to be slammed to safety by Warren Barton, and from the opposite flank an enterprising run by Michael Gray ended with Quinn and Wright colliding at the far post as the ball skidded off the rain-soaked surface.
For 25 minutes, in fact, one 30-yard drive from Gary Speed excepted, most of the game took place in the Newcastle half.
But in the 28th minute a slick break through the heart of the midfield ended with Robinson splitting a square Sunderland back-line. Dyer was left to run free into the area and dink a deft chip over the advancing Thomas Sorensen into the bottom corner.
Holding a 1-0 lead has hardly been Newcastle's forte this season, but the goal appeared to settle Gullit's hitherto jittery men.
Newcastle maintained their slim advantage until half-time, but within five minutes of the restart Phillips, kept quiet throughout the first half, twice experienced brief moments when it looked as though he would embellish his growing reputation.
However, on the first occasion Dabizas got a vital touch on the ball - and on Philips - and then Alain Goma supplied the decisive boot when Phillips was set to shoot.
Ten minutes after the interval Quinn was found clear of the far post by a raking Summerbee centre but the Irishman put his deliberate header well wide. Quinn was soon to make amends.
Gullit's response to the growing pressure was to introduce a muscular striker, presumably to hold up the ball. But it was Duncan Ferguson rather than Shearer who was called on initially. Ferguson had hardly made a contribution, though, when he and the Newcastle defenders watched Quinn's delicate touch to Summerbee's excellent free-kick take the ball beyond Wright's dive.
Newcastle: Wright, Barton, Goma, Dabizas, Domi, Solano, Dyer, McClen, Speed, Maric (Shearer 72), Robinson (Ferguson 57). Subs Not Used: Green, Hughes, Harper. Booked: Domi, McClen. Goals: Dyer 28.
Sunderland: Sorensen, Makin, Butler, Bould, Gray, Rae, Schwarz (Ball 69), McCann, Summerbee, Quinn, Phillips. Subs Not Used: Oster, Dichio, Helmer, Marriott. Booked: Phillips, Butler, McCann. Goals: Quinn 64, Phillips 75.
Referee: G Poll (Tring).
