Alan Pardew and Martin O'Neill found themselves embroiled in a war of words after the derby game.
It is a fair bet referee Mike Dean sat down in a darkened room after what must have been one of the busiest afternoons of his career.
A match he struggled to control, and obviously the fixture was a little too much for him.
From the moment he booked Black Cats skipper Lee Cattermole for a wild challenge on Cheick Tiote with just 40 seconds gone he was under the cosh, because he had to show consistency.
Martin O'Neill: "Possibly in mitigation we had heard that some of their staff had visited the referee's changing room at half-time.
"Of course, we are not party to what was said, but Lee's mitigating circumstance was that he felt a lot of decisions had gone Newcastle's way in the second half.
"That may well be. It doesn't necessarily mean I agree with it, but if you have a little look back, Newcastle themselves would consider themselves lucky to have 11 men still on the field if the referee had continued according to the way he started the game.
"It was everything that people had told me about, everything, absolutely everything.
"Hostility, which I am kind of used to - that's even from my own fans - fervour, everything, everything.
"In a perverse sort of way, I was enjoying it - it had to be really perverse - but there was obviously disappointment at the end."
Pardew, whose goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman was dismissed at half-time after a spat with Sunderland fitness coach Jim Henry, insisted no-one had visited the referee.
Alan Pardew: "I can tell you that's completely untrue. None of our staff was allowed in the referee's room. No-one tried to enter it and no-one entered their dressing room.
"I heard that rumour and it's not right.
"What happens on the bench sometimes gets out of hand, silly things are said. It happens all the time and you just get on with it.
"I have never done that before. It just goes to show that the pressure of the game can get to even the oldest of managers like myself. I was feeling like 58 today rather than 50."