Derby Day, Draw Dominated!

Derby Day Sunday provided us with three intriguing and important Derby matches, but somehow, they all ended all square.

The Second City derby probably provided us with the most drama with Aston Villa hitting the cross-bar three times in the first half alone. The Merseyside derby provided us with the most goals and the Wear-Tyne derby yet again provided us with fascinating and enthralling action.



Roger Johnson is mobbed by team
mates after opening the scoring
at St Andrew's

Birmingham and Aston Villa have always had a fierce some rivalry and that was well and truly on show at St Andrews on Sunday, with flares being used by the fans and tackles flying in all over the pitch. Birmingham took the lead, arguably against the run of play with Villa being denied by the bar three times in the first half, with Roger Johnson excellently converting a cross, on the volley into the corner of Villa's net. 1-0 to the Blues, who were desperate to heap the misery on Gerard Houllier's Villans. However, Villa earned a deserved point when the ball fell to defender James Collins in the box who smashed the ball, via a slight deflection off former Villan Liam Ridgewell, into the Birmingham net. 1-1 and that's how it stayed, probably a fair result.

Jermaine Beckford silences
Liverpool fans

The Merseyside derby rarely fails to disappoint, with goals yet again provided by Liverpool and Everton at Anfield, with new Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish taking charge of his first derby since taking over. Liverpool took the lead through Spaniard Raul Meireles' strike from the edge of the Everton box. Liverpool fans could sense a much needed win over their bitter rivals. However, much like Liverpool all season so far, they couldn't hold onto their lead. Everton defender Sylvain Distan only took 43 seconds after the half time team talk to respond for Everton, after Mikael Arteta's corner is missed by Pepe Reina and nodded into the ground then into the net by Distan, now the Liverpool fans were on edge again. The inevitable had to happen, and it did, with Jermaine Beckford, found in the Liverpool box by
Leon Osman superbly, smashed the ball passed Reina to turn the game on its head, 2-1 to Everton, stunning.
However, what many Liverpool fans where dreading, didn't happen, with Dirk Kuyt being the hero after slotting away a penalty just after the hour mark after Everton keeper Tim Howard brought down Maxi Rodriguez inside the penalty area. 2-2 and it remained that way with neither team being able to force a winner.

Finally, the Wear-Tyne derby at the Stadium of Light. This eagerly anticipated game turned out to be as enthralling as any other Wear-Tyne derby, with Sunderland on a revenge mission after the 5-1 defeat to the Toon in October. Newcastle started magnificently and should have been ahead inside three minutes when Shola Ameobi was one on one with Mackem's keeper Craig Gordan, only to push it past the right hand post. What a start that would have been, especially for Ameobi who had 6 goals in Tyne-Wear derby's in his career going into this one. Minutes later Sunderland had their first real chance, which fell for top scorer Darren Bent who had turned Newcastle defender Fabricio Coloccini inside the box, only to fire the ball straight at Steve Harper in the Newcastle goal from 8 yards out. Electric start to say the least!

The first half was mainly in favour of Newcastle, who continued to look threatening with Joey Barton playing fantastically well on the right hand side (surely and England call is on the cards?). Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique were working really hard on Newcastle's left and were linking up well with each other. Also, Fabricio Coloccini was extremely dominant at the back for the Magpies, dealing with the ever dangerous Bent and Asamoha Gyan up front for the Black Cats, to keep it 0-0 at half time.


The second half didn't start off as quickly as the first, but again Newcastle looked the more likely to open the scoring and they did so on the hour mark, when Joey Barton's corner was nodded down by Ameobi, before being cheekily back-healed into the net by Magpies talisman and skipper Kevin Nolan for his 10th in the league so far this season for 1-0 to the Geordies.


Kevin Nolan celebrates the
opener at the Stadium of Light

 Newcastle looked incredibly comfortable for the next half an hour leading into stoppage time and could have extended their lead. Boy, they wish they had, as in the dying embers of the game, Phil Bardsley fired a shot at goal, which Steve Harper could only parry to Gyan who, not knowing much about it, managed to force it into the goal in the 94th minute, the Sunderland fans were delighted, but you can't help but feel sorry for Newcastle and boss Alan Pardew who deserved all three points in a solid performance.

So, unbelievably, all three derby matches ended up as draws, but they weren't your bog-standard bore draw, they were enthralling to watch and provided plenty of drama along the way. Oh and the other game that afternoon, Tottenham vs Manchester United, guess what, ended in a draw.