OK, as Jake’s brilliant graphic confirms, the waiting is nearly over. You can see all our build-up displayed on the home page by clicking here, and soon it will be time for the players to battle it out for North-eastern honours. Guess the score and you may win a prize.
On Facebook yesterday, I wrote: “Forget the hysteria of Leveson and the Scotland Yard ‘burglars/muggers/killers’ delight’ investigation of reporters having pints or lunch with coppers. The Tyne-Wear derby, Newcastle v Sunderland, is on Sunday at noon. Elegant, witty, informative and impeccably fair tribalism is to be found at https://safc.blog/
We know how important Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby is to most of us and them. But hand on heart, how much do we think it matters to neutrals?
In our build-up to the Tyne-Wear derby, Salut! Sunderland has been a model of fairness and brought you:
While we were vying with Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, this article appeared at Salut! Sunderland: “Beat Boro, overhaul Newcastle but cling to regional common ground.” I invited a prominent NUFC blogger to respond and his reply, which I hope reflected pressure of work and nothing else, was “not really”. Our Newcastle United “Who are You?” volunteer, Peter “Exiled Geordie” Mann*, a sports writer and football historian whose many interests include writing for the Toon Talk fanzine, knows all about the nuances of North-eastern loyalties and was willing to discuss them. He wasn’t at the glorious 1908 game mentioned in the headline but has no doubt what went wrong for the Mags …
This piece brought precious little good fortune in October 2010, when Sunderland came a distinctly poor second in last season’s Tyne-Wear derby. But since we’re often accused of harking back more than a century to the 9-1 game, let’s remember our most recent win at St James’ Park. Ouch: it’s now 11 years … just a little fun, reproduced for the larger audience Salut! Sunderland has these days …
That was not quite how David Athey* had the running order. David is Monsieur Salut’s cousin and a lifelong Newcastle supporter. He’s all for passionate rivalry but the pipe dream suggested in the headline (once re-arranged to suit his tastes) reflects a deeper view, that the North East looks a little sad when those passions descend into pure hatred …
Pete Sixsmith has served the equivalent of a short prison sentence watching Sunderland win, lose and draw – not to mention Blyth Spartans, a Scottish League XI and Liverpool – at the ground formerly known as St James’ Park. Here he begins a two-part series, awarding Like and Dislike points to this strange hotchpotch of a stadium …
West Brom is beginning to be no more than a bad memory. Not entirely true, of course, but it is time to start thinking ahead to Sunday – early in any ordinary week, but derby week (even if Newcastle United v Sunderland takes place, strictly speaking, next week) is never ordinary. John McCormick is a staunch Sunderland supporter. But it was a Mag who made the earliest impression on him – as John recalls more than half a century later, 45 years to the day after the player in question met a tragic death just a few days before an earlier Wear-Tyne encounter played on the 4th of March …
The killing of Marie Colvin in Syria has left her confrère Monsieur Salut in reflective mood for much of the day.
(Image: E G Focus)
(Image: Akuppa John Wigham)