No mistaking the talking point of the weekend. Anybody who saw Adam Johnson's cool, world-class equaliser at the Stadium of Light will probably still be wondering how he did it.

Steve Brennan, the Sun's man in the north-east, was just as impressed as his colleagues - and can't help reminding distraught Sunderland fans that they've missed out on one of their own, a lad who grew up in Easington.

It isn't pleasant reading for the (unlucky) Black Cats management, mind: "The one which got away came back to haunt Steve Bruce yesterday.

"Adam Johnson was tracked by Brucie during the transfer window until Manchester City's millions came calling and took him to Eastlands. And, just to rub salt in the wounds, the £6million winger curled in a sensational last-gasp leveller to show the Black Cats boss what he missed out on.

"Until then it had looked like an unbelievable display from Sunderland No.1 Craig Gordon would be enough to send Roberto Mancini crashing to a damaging defeat. The Scottish star protected the lead given to the Black Cats by Kenwyne Jones in the ninth minute with a stunning one-man show of defiance.

"Gordon pulled off six superb second-half stops and was looking unbeatable until Johnson, 22, a Sunderland fan as a kid, spotted the smallest of spots in the top right corner and planted the ball smack into it."

Steve's sidekick for the day, Martin Blackburn, quotes "moaning" Brucie : "It is Sod's law it would be him who scored. I'll wring his neck - or I will try to. We were on his case for months but he chose City."

Expressman Niall Hickman salutes Johnson's "goal of staggering accuracy" (a phrase often used about Niall's own match reports). "A simply divine strike", he then adds. Steady on pal!   

Meanwhile in the la-la land of transfer gossip, a cracker from Italy, where there are claims that Juventus would be prepared to let goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon join City for a fee in the region of €35million. I bet they would.

And the Sun's Jigsaw column has a puzzling non-story from Andrew Flintoff, who says he wouldn't have sold his house on the cheap to Samuel Eto'o if he had joined from Barcelona last summer. Silly point, Freddy.