Well the most important day of the football season for me is only 6 days away. This fixture for me is even more significant because of my other half supporting them! It is a day I approach with excitement and dread, I mean watching the match yesterday with him was a volatile enough experience. Now usually I'm either at the game or at least physically apart from him on the day. But this time we will be on holiday with friends who have no comprehension of how important this is to me. We have to win.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Answers

no win situation for ye darlin'. You win, he's pissed, he win's, he sleeps on the couch. But the more important thing is how could you find yourself fallin fer a mackem supporter (or is he the type to just supports whoever just ta piss ya off), I mean what was it... his dynamic personality, or maybe the stunning good looks? Surely there's a good reason for it??

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

She thought he was a golf fan. It was only on the wedding night that she realised his love wasn't for SNEAD but SuNdErlAnD when his tatto was revealed in full ;-)

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I hate derby days. They are one off games where their importance is blown out of proportion. Of course I get sucked into all the hype and I am desperate as anyone to beat them. We're due a win at home but I wish we were playing with a full team.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

[on playing SAFC ] "Its bigger than when we play Tottenham"

(Is that an excuse already BTW linda?)

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Naa Linda - it'll make it much sweeter to beat them with only half our first team.

This time, they lose 2-1. Poetic justice. You heard it here first.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

NOT an excuse but a fact I'm afraid.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I hate derbies. I hate the anticipation. I hate the possibility (and reality) of losing. I just hate them.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Oh go on: it's just like any other game only several times more powerful. The pain of losing is infinitely more acute but the goal celebrations are out of this world and the singing stirs you as much as any Wembley trip. It's everything that makes football worthwhile distilled down to its purest form. No amount of skill would be worth trading for atmosphere (just look at Monaco - great team and no fans) and in the derbies the skill just vanishes in the passion. If the team can respond to it this time we'll cruise along on the back of it until Christmas: ask the mackems.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

That's a very tenuous explanation Screach! :-)

Just as well he wasn't a Borussia Munchengladbach supporter then ....

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Stupid question, and I know, I should know, but why are they called derby games, or local derbies anyway? Waiting for stupid answers thank you very much.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Derbies are the high/low point of the season, depending on the result.

Derbies are games that turn players into heroes / villains.

I personally can't wait for it, it was the same last season and the season before that, and it will be the same every coming season.

The pre match atmosphere is second to none and hopefully we can have an even better post match atmosphere.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I found this on the web - it sounds bollix to me but here you are :-

Although there is some controversy over the origin, the consenus 
seems to be:

: Hundreds of years ago, holiday celebrations in towns all over 
England had a tendency to turn into brawls (medieval hooligans?) and 
the civic energy was channeled into loosely-organized ball games, 
often between two parishes or regions. This took the form of a free-
form game with no rules, the object of which was to get a ball (by 
any means) into the opposition's "goal" which was most often the 
parish or town hall or whatever. The playing area was often miles 
long and just as wide, with hundreds of players on a side.

: Then came organized sport in the late 18th and early 19th 
centuries, and the wild local derbies died out. With one exception: 
the annual Shrove Tuesday football match in the Derbyshire village of 
Ashbourne, which lives on, I am told, to this day. The whole town 
participates, and a merry time is had by all ... so long as all the 
windows are boarded up.

For your more complete information the following is an interesting 
extract. See URL "http://www.ashbourne-town.com/frame1.html".

"Ashbourne is host to one of the Old Shrovetide football games. 

The Game is played every Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, and 
consists of two teams, one from anyone born to the North of the River 
Henmore, and one from people born South of the river, these are known 
as Up'ards and Down'ards. 

The Goals are on the sites of Old Cornmills, one being at Sturston, 
and one being at Clifton, these places being three miles apart! This 
may sound quite excessive in itself, but another hazard is the fact 
that the goal posts and a considerable amount of the game is in the 
cold waters of the River Henmore. 

A goal is scored by a player striking the mill wheel three times with 
the ball, as the mills are now derelict new posts have been built in 
the river by the mills. 

Before the game is played about 400 guests meet for lunch and 
speeches at the Green Man and Black's Head Royal Hotel, before the 
game commences at 2.00 p.m."

Personally, I think it's more likely associated with the horserace instituted by the Earl of Derby. As you know this race is very popular and world famous. I suspect that the local match, because of the extra interest generated, simply became known for it's popularity as the local derby.

If I'm right perhaps they should now be called local Man Uniteds

:-)

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

If we do win by a margin of (for the sake of argument) 2 to 1, do we append 2-1 SMB to all our posts in perpetuity or do we rise above it?

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I'm with Jonno on this. Although not every "derby" is played under such arduous conditions, the "goals being underwater" rings a few bells with me.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

We celebrate the win for a few years months weeks then move on with our lives.

I have to say I'd have great satisfaction in singing "We beat the scum 6-0" at the derby game next season.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

I most certainly will not use the terms "scum" or "SMB" in relation to our neighbours. I wish we could rise above this kind of stuff.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Thanks Jonno, It's been twenty odd years since I left, therefore twenty odd years since I was at a derby, never could figure out why it was called a derby.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

i remember a sellars goal under 19 inches of water...

doesn't Alnwick have a similar game to the Ashbourne one Jon?

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Ha Ha the funny/sad thing is I knew he was from Sunderland and his family supported them, but he was more keen on Liverpool !!!!! His allegience to Sunderland appears to have grown as has his ability to wind me up. Last night he was recalling his fond memory of me being reduced to tears in the play off between NUFC and SAFC. Yeah what was it that I fell for ;-)

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Hmm - I'll try to find out Swift, being a resident of said borough these days. Just my luck if a load of marrauding drunks comes lurching over my lawn. Hang on - I think that could be happening this w/e when a few friends are over for drinks.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

They certainly do. Its played in the meadow between the river and the Castle.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001

Jonno, I don't really think of all of them as scum, but a hell of a lot of Mackem fans sing "We beat the scum 2-1" at every chance they get.

It was more of a different way of saying it would be great to win 6-0.

My dad is a Mackem (not really a football fan like) and I get on well with quite of few Mackems, but I know of many who are literally scum.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001