SCORING IN THE DERBY CAN MAKE YOU A LEGEND

HOW can I best explain the feeling of playing in a derby? Given the huge clashes in Merseyside and Manchester tomorrow, it’s got me thinking about the battles I’ve been involved in.

The Premier League is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and globally focused but these are the games that define English football. We should never lose sight of that fact. These occasions are incomparable; they are the ones you dream of playing in when you are starting out.

I’ve been lucky enough to play in derbies on the south coast, Birmingham, north London and Merseyside and the noise and intensity of emotion around the fixtures never leave you. These matches have the power to define reputations and change how someone is perceived by fans.

That was something Jamie Carragher told me before my first Liverpool-Everton game in December 2005. I’d suffered a difficult start to my time at Anfield but I’d just found a little bit of form before we went to Goodison Park. Carra and Steven Gerrard both spoke to me in the build-up and their message was clear: ‘If you do something here,’ they said, ‘you’ll always be remembered. This is

the one.’ Those words stayed in my head and, as it turned out, things could not have gone better.

I got the first as we won 3-1. Stevie put me through and I went round Nigel Martyn before scoring in front of the Gwladys Street, where Everton’s hardcore support sit. I remember it like yesterday and can still see the angry faces and the programmes flying down at me. Funny. Another thing Carra used to tell me was: ‘Don’t be the one who says something stupid before.’ If we had media commitments in the build-up, he would urge us to be so careful as he didn’t want to wind the Everton players up.

I loved the build-up but Carra hated it, he was so nervous and fearful of losing. His message was always the same: don’t give them ammunition. We knew that if we said nothing, someone on their side would crack first. It’s partly why we had a brilliant record.

So many of the derbies I look back on make me smile. Southampton-Portsmouth was a good one, particularly the FA Cup fourth-round tie in January 2005. There was extra ‘spice’, shall we say, around it as it was the first since Harry Redknapp had left Fratton Park for St Mary’s.

You can imagine the Portsmouth fans weren’t singing love songs to Harry and he was faced with the prospect of having to go back to Fratton Park for a replay with the score tied going into the final minute. Then we won a penalty.

IREALLY fancied taking it and went to pick the ball up. But out of the corner of my eye I could see Harry waving his arms frantically. He was screaming, too. ‘No! No! No! Give it to someone else.’

I didn’t pay any attention and, thankfully, I scored to win it. What a feeling. After the match, when things had calmed down, Harry came up to me and said: ‘Well done, son, I’ve never been so nervous.’ I just winked and replied: ‘Yeah, I know. I saw you throwing your arms around . . . you filled me full of confidence!’

Looking back now, I can still hear the noise. It was different to normal games. You could feel the hatred bubbling away underneath. There was a feeling that fixture could boil over and it was the same as Aston Villa v Birmingham, the first derby I played in back in March 2003.

That fixture at Villa Park hadn’t been staged for years and it was mad. The game was notorious for Dion Dublin head-butting Robbie Savage — 15 years on, I still can’t believe I’m saying that. Dion is a good friend of mine. He was a tough lad on the pitch but, more than anything, calm.

He certainly wasn’t the headbutting type but, then again, I suppose if anyone can bring that out of you, it’s Robbie Savage! Robbie gets a rough end of the deal sometimes. He could play. But, invariably, he was there to wind people up and it worked a treat that night at Villa Park.

I’ve some brilliant memories but the dark ones are there, too. The day Everton beat Liverpool 3-0 at Goodison in 2006 was horrendous. The feeling you have afterwards in the pit of your stomach is so bad. You’re empty.

That’s what is at stake at Anfield and Old Trafford tomorrow. We can say this is the biggest weekend of the season and talk about Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Sam Allardyce but when you strip it all away, the people who matter most are the ones in the stands.

Faces increasingly change in teams but fans don’t. We have to keep getting the message across to those involved what these games mean. It isn’t just three points, no matter what people say. It’s so much more than that. These are the days legends are made. We can never forget that.