Cheick Tiote: "All I can say to them [the fans] is sorry for this defeat again because we cannot accept that.
"It's two seasons now we have been beaten by Sunderland at home and this is the worst, worst thing in my career, so I just want to say sorry to them.
"That's football, we need to focus on the next game now."
Alan Pardew later stoically avoided any criticism of the men above him, but that did little to calm the storm surrounding the club after a third derby defeat in a row for the first time since 1923.