Tyne-Wear derby

The Tyne-Wear derby is the name of the football local derby between Newcastle United and Sunderland.

The derby is an inter-city rivalry in the north east of England, however the fact that the two cities of Newcastle and Sunderland are just ten miles apart give it the intense feeling of a cross-town rivalry, heightened by a feeling that it is city against city with local pride at stake. Moreover, the close proximity means that as in derby matches, workmates and friends are often divided.

Some of the derbies were shown live during the 1990s as part of the "North East Match" programme on the local ITV region, Tyne Tees Television.

History

Rivalry beyond football

The History of the Tyne-Wear derby is regarded by many in the North East as the modern day extension of a rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland that dates back to the English Civil War when protestations over advantages that merchants in Royalist Newcastle had over their Wearside counterparts led to Sunderland becoming a Parliamentarian stronghold. [Middlebrook, S. "Newcastle Upon Tyne: Its Growth and Achievement", p. 87. Newcastle Chronicle and Journal, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1950 and Corfe, Tom "History of Sunderland", pp. 35-45. Frank Graham, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1973]

Tyne and Wear again found themselves on opposite sides during the Jacobite Rebellions, with Newcastle in support of the Hanoverians with King George hence the nickname Geordies and Sunderland siding with the Stuarts. [Griffiths, Bill "A Dictionary of North East Dialect", p. 86. Northumbria University Press, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2004]

The industrial revolution and the close proximity of the two, saw them compete against each other in many industrial fields, such as shipbuilding and the coal trade, this was despite the fact Newcastle wasn't on the site of a coalfield, along with other heavy industry.

Even in the present largely post-industrial times, an animosity extending beyond football exists. Further resentment has been caused by the incorporation of the whole of the north-east England region as being under the Newcastle banner, with the omission of Sunderland and Durham's river, the River Wear, from the name of the regional ITV company, Tyne Tees,Fact|date=May 2008.

The Football Rivalry

Prior to the beginning of the twentieth century, the main rivalries in Newcastle and Sunderland were cross-town affairs. In Newcastle, a fierce rivalry existed during the 1880s between Newcastle East End (later to become Newcastle United) and Newcastle West End, which was ended with West End's bankruptcy in 1892. Meanwhile on Wearside, a group of players broke away from Sunderland, and formed the rival Sunderland Albion in 1888, though Albion was forced to fold four years later.

The first meeting between the two took place in 1883, with the first competitive fixture, an FA Cup tie in 1888. The first league meeting took place at Roker Park on Christmas Eve, 1898. Newcastle drew first blood in a 3-2 victory, but it was Sunderland who were to dominate the early derby period.

During the 1900s, the rivalry began to emerge. The 1901 Good Friday encounter at St James' Park had to be abandoned as up to 70,000 fans made their way into a ground which then had a capacity of 30,000. The news was met with anger, and rioting followed, with a number of fans injured. However, in general, although the derby attracted big crowds - with fans often climbing trees and buildings for views of the game - there is little evidence to suggest any animosity between the two sets of supporters in the pre-war and immediate post-war period.

Memorable derby matches

*Newcastle 1-9 Sunderland (5 December 1908) [ [http://www.khscott.org.uk/nufc/includes/match_detail.php?id=330 Newcastle United 1 Sunderland 9 (Match report)] ] - Many Sunderland fans were locked out of a capacity St. James' Park and had to watch the Sunderland reserve game and watch the scoreboard operator flash the score. Sunderland went 1-0 up on 28 minutes, and the Magpies equalized with a penalty on the stroke of half-time. Sunderland then went into unstoppable form, scoring 8 goals in 28 second half minutes. Sunderland effectively "declared" after 74 minutes. Billy Hogg (ironically, Newcastle born) and George Holley scored hat-tricks, Arthur Bridgett scored twice and Jackie Mordue once. All four of the goal-scorers for Sunderland were England internationals. Despite this defeat, it was Newcastle who were crowned League Champions that year.

*Newcastle 6-1 Sunderland (9 October 1920) - Newcastle recorded their best ever win at St James' in a fiery match which had it's fair share of foul play. New signing Neil Harris and Andy Smailes both bagged a brace in a great victory.

*Sunderland 1-6 Newcastle (26 December 1955) - Newcastle's finishing was devastating when they visited Roker Park on Boxing Day 1955. The score was 6-1 with 25 minutes still left on the clock, but an injury to Mitchell led to Newcastle failing to gain revenge for the 1908 massacre

*Sunderland 1-0 Newcastle (5 April 1980) – Sunderland's last competitive victory over Newcastle at Roker Park. Stan Cummins scored the only goal of the game in front of a crowd of over 40,000. This victory inspired Sunderland to a good run of results to clinch promotion at the end of the season. Newcastle, conversely, fell apart and ended the season in mid-table mediocrity.

*Newcastle 3-1 Sunderland (1 January 1985) - A dramatic New Years Day encounter between the teams, a Peter Beardsley hat-trick won the game for Newcastle. Sunderland gave away two penalties, Peter Beardsley scored the first, but Chris Turner saved Beardsley's second penalty. Sunderland's Howard Gayle was sent off early in the second half for a second yellow card for dissent and towards the end of the game Sunderland went down to nine men when Gary Bennett was sent off for a horrendous tackle on Wes Saunders.

*Newcastle 1-2 Sunderland (25 August 1999) – On a rainy night at St. James' Park, Alan Shearer was left on the Newcastle substitutes bench by manager Ruud Gullit. Newcastle took the lead through Kieron Dyer, but a second half comeback from Sunderland through goals from Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips helped Sunderland to a win and also to Ruud Gullit's resignation the next day.

*Sunderland 1 Newcastle 4. 17 April 2006. The final game of Alan Shearer's career saw him fire home a penalty before leaving the field due to injury. The match also saw a future Sunderland player Micheal Chopra score having only been on the field for 45 seconds. The further compound the Sunderland fans misery Albert Luque wrapped the match up with 3 minutes to go prompting the song "One nil down, Four one up, Albert Luque wrapped it up" from the joyous Geordie fans. To this day chants of "4-1 & Even Chopra scored" can be heard at St James' Park.

Away fans ban

The 1996-1997 season saw Sunderland join Newcastle in the Premier League. However, the anticipation of the two derby matches were soon marred by proposals to ban Newcastle fans from the aging Roker Park on safety and security grounds. A last-minute agreement by Sunderland and Northumbria Police was to allow 1,000 Newcastle supporters to attend the game. However, Newcastle had already made arrangements for a live televised beamback, and so rejected the offer. Responding to criticism from fans, Newcastle's then Chief Executive Freddie Fletcher suggested that the state of Roker Park was to blame and told fans: "Don't blame Newcastle. Don't blame Northumbria Police. Blame Sunderland!" [Candlish, Alan "Ha'Way/Howay The Lads: The History of the Rivalry Between Newcastle United and Sunderland", p. 322. Sports Books Limited, Cheltenham, 2006]

In response to the ban on Newcastle fans at Roker Park, Newcastle placed a similar ban on Sunderland fans for the return fixture at St James' Park.

Fans of both sides were angry and disappointed. Fearing that this would set a precedent for future derby matches, supporters groups and fanzines of both sides joined together to form the "Wear United" pressure group. Supporters of both sides were assured that away fans would be able to attend future derby games, though this was probably more to do with the fact that the 1996–1997 season was Sunderland's last at Roker Park before moving into the brand new Stadium of Light.

Results of the fixture in the Premier League

underland Doubles

Attendances

Highest Attendances

* Stan Anderson

* Paul Bracewell

* Alan Brown

* Michael Chopra

* Andy Cole

* David Elliott

* Howard Gayle

* Thomas Grey

* Stephen Hardwick

* David Kelly

* Andy McCombie

* James Raine

* Bryan 'Pop' Robson

* Len Shackleton

* Colin Suggett

* Tommy Unwin

* Nigel Walker

* David Young

In addition, the guest system operated in British football during World War II meant that most teams fielded guest players. Amongst these was the Newcastle forward Jackie Milburn who made two guest appearances for Sunderland during the 1944/45 season. Another Newcastle striker, Albert Stubbins also guested for Sunderland several times during the 1941/42 season, including an appearance in the Wartime Cup Final, which Sunderland lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers despite a Stubbins goal.

Managers

Bob Stokoe, who won the FA Cup as a player with Newcastle in 1955, was manager of Sunderland between 1972 and 1977, guiding the Wearsiders to their famous FA Cup victory in 1973 and promotion to Division One in 1976. He returned to manage them briefly again in 1987.

On 15 May 2007 Newcastle appointed Sam Allardyce as their new manager, who played for Sunderland in the early 1980s.cite news
title = Newcastle name Allardyce as boss
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/6654121.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-05-15
accessdate = 2007-05-15]

ee also

*Tyne-Tees Derby

References