IT'S DERBY day and the nerves are tingling. Not with anticipation at the thought of seeing the net behind Van der Saar bulge or waiting for Ronaldo to dive in the penalty area but with trepidation of what will happen a minute before kick-off. On Wednesday, the minute’s silence lasted 27 seconds. But then the cameras didn’t know where to look for the louts. Today we know they will be focused on the 3,000 Manchester City supporters.

Three years ago, the Premier League unhelpfully scheduled this match for this same weekend. Such is the feeling of enmity between the two sets of supporters it took only one United fan to wave his arms in an aeroplane motion to wind up the three City morons who responded, at which point more United fans displayed their displeasure and the predictable catcalling from both sides ensued. Could the Premier League really not have reprogrammed their computers? If they can take Wigan and Blackburn to play in SouthEast Asia they can move the Manchester derby by a couple of weeks.

United’s insistence on doing things their way despite the representations for common sense to prevail has already alienated many City fans. We all want that minute to pass in total silence but we know the society we live in may not allow it to happen.

Yes, Frank Swift was a great player for Manchester City, as had been Matt Busby, and acknowledging Swift’s tragic death should be part of today’s ceremony. And let’s not forget another victim of Munich, the great football journalist, HD “Donny” Davies of the Manchester Guardian. But as an eight-year-old boy I was appalled above all by the loss of the United players. My brother, with whom I shared a bedroom, is a Red. It was the first time I had seen him cry. The Busby Babes weren’t my team but I knew that what had happened passed beyond the petty limits of fan sectarianism. Edwards, Taylor, Byrne and the rest were not my heroes but they were the heroes of my schoolfriends and family. How could anyone in Manchester fail to be moved by the tragedy?

It is now seen by the ignorant on both sides as heresy to recall that many in those days went to Old Trafford one week and Maine Road the next. There was rivalry but the visceral hatred of today did not exist. The crowd in 1958 still remembered the devastation of a world war.

At every recent derby United fans have unfurled a banner announcing the number of years since 1976, when City last won a major honour. This is not playful teasing; it is a deliberate, hostile taunt. United have asked for it not to be displayed today. As Rodney King asked after the 1992 LA riots: “Can’t we all just get along?”

- Colin Shindler is the author of Manchester United Ruined My Life

TV match

Man Utd v Man City

Today, Sky Sports 1, 1pm, kick-off 1.30pm