The final North-East derby of the season

The atmosphere will crackle with intensity and passion, the action will be full-blooded and heartfelt, and the occasion will underline both the cracks that divide the region and the shared love of football that brings it back together.

But there will also be something thoroughly depressing about a match that towers above all others in the calendar of both Newcastle United and Sunderland.

Once the final whistle blows at the Stadium of Light this weekend, that will effectively be that for another season of North- East football. We are not even two-thirds of the way into January, yet we might as well already pack our bags and go home.

The importance of a derby game tends to rise in inverse proportion to the quality of a team’s campaign, and that is why Sunday’s match is being billed as a season definer on both sides of the Wear- Tyne divide.

Perhaps Sunderland will win it and embark on a fantastic run that results in them qualifying for Europe?

Maybe Newcastle will lose it and plunge into the heart of a relegation battle that remains unresolved until the final day?

Both scenarios are unlikely. A much safer bet is that both sides will carry on pretty much as they have been, winning an odd game here, losing an odd game there and drifting towards May without the drama of an FA Cup run to sustain them.

Of course a top-half finish for Sunderland should not be sniffed at, just as survival would be a considerable achievement for Newcastle given their relegation two years ago.

But should that really be the sum of our region’s ambitions?

Last weekend’s FA Cup debacle felt bad enough at the time, but it is only now, with the final four months of the season stretching out in the distance, that the full extent of the repercussions are sinking in.

Save for an odd match that increases in relevance because of the state of the opposition, there is going to be precious little to play for once this weekend’s skirmish is out of the way.

So we’d better make the most of it while we can.

We’d better enjoy our moment in the spotlight, if indeed that moment arrives at all. Because while we’re on the subject of reasonably unpalatable realities, perhaps it’s time to quash a myth that tends to accompany North-East derby games.

This is not a match that stops the rest of the nation in its tracks.

We often like to think it is, but it isn’t.

To paraphrase Ruud Gullit – and let’s hope I don’t meet the same grizzly end as he did – this is not the biggest derby game in football.

It is up here, of course it is.

And none of this is meant to diminish the gravitas or relevance of a fixture that helps to define a region and its people.

But pick up any national newspaper tomorrow, and see what they make of the North-East derby. Once you’ve trawled through the endless musings about Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, you might find something tucked away in an outside column.

Nationally, this is Birmingham vs Aston Villa with a few better songs and the likelihood of a goal or two.

Will that make any difference to the atmosphere inside the Stadium of Light on Sunday? No. Should it come into the thinking of any of the supporters flocking to Wearside to support their team? Certainly not.

But for those of us without ties of loyalty, and therefore able to take a slightly more nuanced view of this weekend’s proceedings, it is a considerable shame.

What does it say about a region devoted to football, that rightly regards itself as a key crucible for the national game, if its only match of relevance in the next four months is a midtable affair that the rest of the country watches with one eye closed?

When I take my seat on Sunday, I will feel privileged to be present at a great North-Eastern occasion. But I will also find it impossible not to wonder if the supporters of Sunderland and Newcastle do not deserve a little bit more.

SHOULD the Football Association bring back the home internationals as a one-off in 2013? Yes.

Should they consider reintroducing the tournament on an annual basis? Absolutely not.

There are sound commercial and sporting reasons for arranging a series of British-based matches in the build up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Assuming England have qualified (and it would be wrong to take that for granted), games against Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would afford an intensity of preparation not available from most friendly matches.

A series of guaranteed sell-outs would also help plug a worrying gap in the FA’s finances.

So far, so good. But that doesn’t mean there should be a series of home internationals every year.

The competition would soon get stale, England’s players would not be tested by the same range of opponents they will meet in future World Cups and European Championships, and the potential for violence would rise with every staging of the tournament.

As a one-off, the FA’s plan has merits. As anything more, it is regressive in the extreme.

Babel in hot water

RYAN Babel has been in hot water for posting a mockedup picture of Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt on his Twitter site.

The FA have charged the Liverpool winger with improper conduct, but to my mind, they should actually be thanking Babel for proving that players have not yet become so detached from reality that they do not act and think like supporters.

Clearly, there will have to be some guidelines in the future.

But has football really become so sanitised that players and managers are not allowed to laugh and joke in the same way fans do?