Big? Tyne-Tees derby couldn’t get much lower

May 10 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

AND so we come to supposedly the biggest of so many “big games” in football’s supposed hotbed.

So “big”, it’s of as fleeting interest to the nation at large as a minor car crash passed by on a motorway.

Forget the hype . . . beyond the Tyne and Tees (oh, and the Wear and Humber), tomorrow night’s events at St James’s Park will be for rubberneckers only.

Setanta’s anchorman should introduce their coverage with the words: “Nothing to see here, move along . . .”

A titanic struggle? Only in that all concerned look like they’re going down.

Big? If there’s one thing more depressing than the Premier League table, it’s that the footballing definition of that word up our way has changed beyond recognition.

A change which has left our lot not as good as the rest.

To Newcastle United, “big” once meant a title face-off at Old Trafford or a footballing feast at the San Siro.

For a club dining at the Premier League’s top table, Middlesbrough at home was not much more than an aperitif or a brandy nightcap.

In those days, the Magpies would look to Liverpool to do them a favour against Manchester United; for Arsenal – or even Inter Milan – to come unstuck elsewhere.

Now, they are reliant on Stoke getting a result. At Hull.

And Boro? UEFA Cup finalists three years ago. Carling Cup winners in 2003. Their fall from grace has been, well, more graceful. But a fall nonetheless.

All of which means that while both look likely to crash and burn, we are back to the days when Newcastle v Middlesbrough – or any other “big” North East game – is off the nation’s radar.

And the as-yet unspoken question which should be asked at St James’s Park tomorrow night is no less brutal . . .