Just when Sunderland thought that things couldn’t get any worse, news that the club had to give Newcastle supporters hundreds of pints of free beer after the recent FA Cup tie will have only served to heighten the embarrassment that club owners already feel.
In the lead up to the match, one of the hospitality lounges had been decorated in black and white and festooned with Newcastle slogans.
That prompted Sunderland club chairman, Kyril Louis-Dreyfuss to go apoplectic at staff and apologise to fans of the club via social media, per a report in The Times (subscription required).
The furore from that mistake hadn’t really died down before Newcastle turned up at the Stadium of Light and left with a comfortable 3-0 victory, thanks in part to Alexander Isak’s double.
They say that everything comes in threes, and on this occasion, Sunderland’s hospitality extended to them giving the Toon Army free beer after the match.
The Times note that in expectation of there being a large contingent of Newcastle supporters buying beer post-match because of the ruling of keeping them behind to allow the rest of the ground to clear, bar staff took the decision to pour hundreds of pints in readiness and to save time at full-time.
Unfortunately, the card machines developed a wifi glitch and that meant they were unable to connect to the bank.
Faced with the decision of pouring the pints away, the staff were left with little choice other than to allow Newcastle’s delighted supporters to put another one over on their nearest rivals.