Some fixtures seem to just generate heat and the players can easily get swept along in the emotion of the occasion, writes KEEPUP’s Roy O’Donovan.
Maybe it was the bricks that told me this would be no ordinary game, as they thudded into the windows of our coach along with a few other missiles and a lot of choice words from Newcastle fans on both sides of the bus.
Dressed in my Sunderland club suit, I began to understand what players had been telling me during the week about the Tyne & Wear derby, and the animosity when Newcastle and Sunderland locked horns.
There is something about certain fixtures that radiates heat. In most cases it’s a derby but history, politics and religion can all play a role in making games against a particular opponent turn into a grudgefest. We have a cracking run of them in the A-League Men just now – Brisbane v Sydney tonight has often seemed to get a bit tasty, we had the Melbourne derby a couple of weeks back, and then next weekend it’s Adelaide v Melbourne Victory and the Sydney derby on consecutive days.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the coaches will be preaching a message of calm, of staying cool in the heat of battle and playing to the game plan… but then sometimes you just can’t help yourself. In certain games, the emotion spills down from the grandstand and sweeps you up.
Buy tickets for Brisbane Roar v Sydney FC here
For the local lads, fans themselves, it’s a bit personal. Jordan Henderson made pretty clear to us at Sunderland how much he was looking forward to taking on Newcastle, and one look at the local paper gave you an idea of what was on the line.
Scotland has a good line in local rivalries, usually powered by the religious divide; growing up in Ireland, I well understood the emotion bound up in the green and white of Celtic against the literally royal blue of Rangers. But Hearts against Hibernian, the Edinburgh derby, is built on a similar faultline; these are games that as players and coaches you daren’t lose.
The fall-out if you do can linger. I went on loan to Hibs from Coventry and played up front against Hearts alongside Leigh Griffiths, with clear instructions from our coach to stand off the Hearts defence and not press them in case they passed through us. Well, that was the plan anyway – until Ian Black peeled off a 70m pass over our heads onto the foot of their striker, Craig Beattie, who scored.
We lost 2-0 and at training on Monday, our hot-headed assistant coach Billy Brown let rip at myself and Leigh for… not pressing. As the new boy in on loan I kept my mouth shut, but Leigh Griffiths fired right back. Pushing ensued and Leigh suddenly pulled Billy’s jumper over his head and sent him crashing to the ground. To be honest we were desperately trying not to laugh and incur any more of Billy’s wrath. Leigh meanwhile walked right out of the training ground, still in his kit, and simply vanished for two hours – until he reappeared having remembered he needed a lift home from training.
These emotions are the result of what’s at stake. When I first came here and played for the Mariners against Newcastle in the F3 derby, the Newcastle-born boys in the Jets side like Nigel Boogaard, Ben Kantarovski and Jason Hoffman were into us, snarling and kicking. Their dressing room was in a heightened state, and it showed on the pitch.
A few years later I went to join Newcastle and the Mariners made a big fuss about the players they had who had left Newcastle. I very much enjoyed scoring a hattrick in our 5-1 win. But for all the goals I scored in my career, the wins and the high points, there’s a memory that still rankles. It came at the end of that same season, when were 3-2 down in injury time to the Mariners and I missed a penalty – missed two actually, as the first was retaken.
I’d always back myself from the spot but in these games, with the emotion crackling, anything can happen. Sometimes it’s a regional thing – Liverpool v Manchester United is all bound up in the history of the clubs and their cities. Brisbane v Sydney FC has had an air of State of Origin, and when I played for Brisbane we definitely felt a particular pleasure in knocking the Sky Blues out of the FFA Cup as it was called then.
It may not surprise you to know that I loved these games, even though they were pretty intimidating at times. Just ask the Sunderland coach driver that day.
