But ... come on ... he knew it was coming.
During the build up to the fixture Newcastle were the club calling the shots ... and there was no reply from the Mackems.
Pardew predicted a win; Shola wanted to go 'Mackem Slaying' once again; Santon said the players were out to silence the home support; Jonas said "I love beating Sunderland"; and there was Steven Taylor.
The Mackems - to a man - said NOWT!
The Mackem Leprechaun even went the other way, praising everything black and white! How he wanted Sunderland to follow Newcastle's lead and get into Europe; and how Pardew deserved "Manager Of The Year" last term.
It was weird! Too friggin weird for my liking.
If ever there was a genade thrown into a football ground it was Steven Taylor's comments on Saturday. The former England Under-21 skipper, who supported Newcastle from the terraces as a kid, insisted he would rather become a stamp collector than ever wear a Sunderland shirt.
Speaking after the 1-1 draw, Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill made no attempt to hide his disgust at the terrace abuse directed at Taylor, saying: "If that's what they are singing then that would be poor and it would be in very poor taste. I would be disappointed with that."
The central defender was roundly jeered when he warmed up on the sidelines and, when he replaced Fabricio Coloccini with 10 minutes to go, chants of "We wish you were dead" rang around sections of the home crowd.
Newcastle's 3,000 following in the upper reaches of the North Stand also aimed abuse at their local rivals, but none of it came close to matching the chants which greeted the arrival of Taylor. Newcastle boss Alan Pardew claimed he did not hear the chants.
But let's have a reality check. Taylor knew what was coming.
And I remember being kept behind in the stadium after a Wear-Tyne derby, and all 4,000 Toon fans sang: "Peter Reid has a f***ing monkey's heed" as he was being interviewed live on TV.
The footage showed the reporter trying to make a meal of it, saying the Toon fans were "disgusting and there was no room for it in football".
But Reid put the man straight: "Listen, they are great supporters! I have a face like a monkey ... ears like a monkey. I don't have a problem with it. Why should you?"
MAGS AND MACKEMS ... WE HATE EACH OTHER ... LET'S RESPECT THAT!