Tyne-Wear derby: Where heroes are made in a moment

NICE TOUCH: Sunderland hero Niall Quinn dances around Nikos Dabizas and Clarence Acuna of Newcastle in an FA Cup clash at the Stadium of Light. Pic: Stu Forster/Allsport

“What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.”

Bobby Robson in his autobiography, My Kind of Toon.

AS rivalries go, few are as fierce and frenetic as the Tyne-Wear derby. In the days leading up to the game between Newcastle and Sunderland, the hype intensifies as the cities gear up for one of football’s most chaotic contests. 

When matchday arrives, it’s no longer just about sporting adversariality: It’s about the North East holdings its breath as pride, history, and identity collide for 90 fierce minutes of football.

On Sunday, the sides stand off for only the third time in a decade, Sunderland having returned to the top tier of English football last summer. With the Mackems holding bragging rights since a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season, the Geordies will be out for revenge.

The Irish participation in this fixture has increased over the past few decades, with Shay Given, David Kelly, and Daryl Murphy all having experienced life on both sides. 

Newcastle United have fielded 13 Irish players from north and south of the border in the derby since the early 1980s, with John Anderson, Andy O’Brien, Aaron Hughes, Damien Duff, and Given all playing key roles during a turbulent traverse between Premier League and Championship football for the Magpies.

On the other side of the Tyne-Wear divide, Sunderland have featured more than twice that amount, with John O’Shea, James McLean, Andy Reid, Kevin Kilbane, and Jason McAteer all contributing heavily to the club’s rise, fall, and resurgence since the turn of the century.

That said, not many Irish players can boast of having scored in the Tyne-Wear derby, while even fewer can say they have netted a match-winning goal to etch their names into each of these clubs’ respective history books.

Dubliner Liam O’Brien joined Newcastle United in November 1988 with a focus on securing regular first-team football and a longer-term contract, having played under both Ron Atkinson and Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

O’Brien was well aware of the animosity with Sunderland, but little did he know he would go on to score not one, but two of the most memorable goals in Newcastle’s history, both decisive strikes for the Magpies in back-to-back away victories (1991 and 1992) at Sunderland’s Roker Park stadium.

O’Brien says: “The free-kick is the one I get asked most about. John Beresford wanted to take it, but I was having none of it. As soon as it left my foot, I knew it was going in.

“There’s a great photograph of my arm in the air before anyone else. Then, I ran to where my father and younger brother were sitting to celebrate. It was lovely.”

HERO: Newcastle's Liam O'Brien after his free kick sealed a 2-1 First Division win against Sunderland at Roker Park in 1992. Pic: Simon Bruty/Allsport/Getty Images

O’Brien became immersed in the football culture and rivalry of the North East, and he describes just how much this fixture means to the fans and people of these neighbouring cities, just 19km apart and bridged by the A183, an artery along which Tyne-Wear derby legends have clashed for decades.

O’Brien says: “To truly understand how passionate they are about their club, you have to go there, because every household in Newcastle and Sunderland, they’re all football fans and they have that hatred for each other. It’s the biggest game of the season for both, because many of them work together, they’re going in to work on Monday after the game, and they want to have the bragging rights. It’s massive.”

Niall Quinn has a place in Sunderland folklore, not only as a former owner and chairman, but also having made over 200 appearances for the club, scoring 62 goals and playing a key role in their successful return to Premier League football in 1999.

The Black Cats went on to enjoy back-to-back seventh-place finishes, and Quinn scored an iconic winner in a famous 2-1 victory at Newcastle’s St James’s Park stadium, which he describes to the Irish Examiner as one of his favourite ever goals.

Quinn says: “I’ve said on numerous occasions, one of my favourite goals I scored was a header against Newcastle in St James’s Park. Shay Given was in goal, he was no stranger to the derby either...after the match, I had a tap on my shoulder, I turned and it was Sir Bobby Robson. He said, ‘By Christ, what a header son’. I’ve always cherished that moment.”

Having featured in many seismic fixtures at club and international level, Quinn recounts just how unique and iconic it was to be part of such an historic clash between these two renowned rivals.

Quinn says: “I played in the Manchester derby with City and the North London derby with Arsenal; great derbies, brilliant occasions. But this one took me aback, the rivalry is so strong and the talk before the match goes on for weeks. It’s in every house and the importance of it is astronomical.”

O’Brien, who recently published his autobiography, Pass Master: Football, Fergie, Big Jack, and My Life in the Beautiful and Sometimes Brutal Game, echoes how even as a player and as an Irishman living in Newcastle, it was impossible not to get swept up in the sheer magnitude and scale of this thunderous clash of two cities colliding.

O’Brien says: “The week of the game, everyone is talking about it, especially the local lads in the squad: - Lee Clark, Steve Howey, Steve Watson, Alan Thompson. You can’t help but get sucked into it; you’re representing the club and the city and you want to win for yourself and your teammates, but, mostly, you want to do it for the fans and the people.”

The people. Quinn knows all too well what it means to the fans of both clubs to not only get one up on their closest rivals, but also the pride and adulation when they see their heroes giving everything on the pitch for their club and fanbase.

Quinn says: “It was a fabulous time in my life, and the crowd believed in us. You have to work hard for the fans. They work hard in order to fill the stadium and support you, so the least they expect is that you give it absolutely everything, and they love you for it.”

It’s not just the locals who get caught up in derby delirium in the North East. Quinn describes how his own friends and family have fond memories of this explosive encounter and how it compares to sporting events back on Irish soil.

Quinn says: “I remember bringing my best friend over from Ireland, a real Gaelic football man. He still talks about it to this day, the atmosphere, the fans, the hostility, the energy. It was something he’d never witnessed before.”

IRISH INFLUENCE: Alex Murphy of Newcastle United in action. Pic: Stu Forster/Getty Images

While Sunday’s clash may be less laden with Irish influence than in previous fixtures (Sunderland’s Dan Ballard and Trai Hume the most likely to be involved in on-field matters, while Alex Murphy is expected to be a bench option for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle), the Tyne-Wear derby invariably creates a new stage for heroes to be born, something O’Brien carries with him to this day, following his heroics for the Magpies all those years ago.

O’Brien says: “I remember going out that night, having a beer to celebrate, and we went to a local pub, where we lived in the village up in Newcastle. I was with a few friends and fans and they said to me, ‘Liam, you don’t realise what you’ve done, do you?’ I said, ‘Yes, I scored a winner today’. They said, ‘No, you’ll never be forgotten. That will never be forgotten’. To this day, they still sing a song about it, 33 years later.”

Newcastle United face Sunderland in the Tyne-Wear derby on Sunday (12pm, Sky Sports)