FOOTBALL
Sunderland cap miserable week by giving Newcastle fans free beer
A wi-fi outage meant that supporters could not pay for pints that had already been poured by staff at Sunderland’s ground after the away side’s FA Cup victory
Many Newcastle fans remained in the North Stand after full-time while they waited for their bus
RICHARD LEE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Newcastle fans were given free beer by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light after their 3-0 victory in the Tyne-Wear derby on Saturday.
Newcastle were backed by 6,000 travelling supporters for the FA Cup third-round tie and, to allow for such a big away following, the fans were bussed directly to and from the Stadium of Light, with many remaining in the North Stand after full-time as the bars stayed open.
To meet the demand from those supporters and speed up the serving process, bar staff were pouring pints in advance of customers, but then all card machines went offline when Sunderland’s wi-fi crashed, resulting in jubilant Newcastle fans being handed pints for no charge in the cashless stadium.
One fan said on social media:
