On 6 February 1958, when the plane carrying the Manchester United team back from a European Cup tie crashed in wintry conditions on the runway in Munich, claiming the lives of 23, the city of Manchester came together as one like never before. 

And just four days after the 50th anniversary of that tragedy in 2008, the fixtures had somehow pitted Manchester United v Manchester City at Old Trafford. Again, when it mattered most, rivalries were put to one side, and 3,000 City fans held their scarves high in unison with the United fans as a minute’s silence was impeccably observed. 

The very first meeting of these two Mancunian giants can be traced back to 1881, when St Mark’s (West Gorton) took on Newton Heath. 

Newton Heath became Manchester United a full eight years later in 1902, and on Christmas Day that year, Manchester United drew 1-1 with Manchester City in front of an estimated 40,000 crowd in Clayton – the first all-Manchester derby (as United and City). 

Two years later, City became the first Manchester club to win a major trophy with Billy Meredith’s goal enough to beat Bolton 1-0 in the 1904 FA Cup final at the Crystal Palace. 

A few years later, scandal rocked Manchester with several City players – including the mercurial Meredith – moving across the city to play for United with the Reds benefitting to the tune of the First Division title in 1908. 

Both clubs had outgrown their dilapidated stadia, and it was United who were the first to move into far more salubrious surrounds with the opening of Old Trafford in 1910. 

On 17 September that year, the first Manchester derby was contested at the new venue, watched by an estimated gate of 60,000 – a record for the fixture at the time. 

City would plough on at Hyde Road for another 13 years before Maine Road – dubbed the ‘Wembley of the North’ – opened its doors for the first time in August 1923. 

Throughout the 1930s, gates at Maine Road regularly dwarfed those across the city. 

The derbies played between 1947, and January 1949 were all played at Maine Road as the Manchester clans shared our home in Moss Side while Old Trafford was rebuilt and again, the 1950s almost always saw City’s gates comfortably outnumber those of a red persuasion.  

During the 1960s, both Maine Road and Old Trafford regularly had gates in excess of 60,000 for derby day. 

Indeed, the Sixties were a halcyon period for City v United fixtures, with both teams packed with quality, individual brilliance and genuine characters. The Blues had Bell, Lee and Summerbee, the Reds has Best, Law and Charlton and the games were fast, furious and often unforgettable, played in tinderbox atmospheres. 

On-field spats were common, and passions were intense on the terraces, but the 1974 Manchester derby was woven into the city’s folklore as Denis Law, back wearing sky blue for the first time in 12 years, backheeled a goal that rubberstamped relegation for a United side that were doomed anyway. 

Famously, as thousands of United fans poured onto the pitch that day, City’s Iron Man Mike Doyle – a vocal detractor of all things red - calmly walked through the hordes back to the dressing room with a look of menace that ensured a channel opened up for him. 

The Blues had the upper hand in the 1970s, but the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s were weighted in United’s favour. Often heavily, bar an unforgettable 5-1 win for the Blues in September 1989. 

When Sir Alex Ferguson’s side won the Treble in 1999, the Blues were facing a second season in the third tier, before Paul Dickov’s late heroics against Gillingham began the start of a slow pendulum swing towards the blue half of the city. 

It would take a decade, but a new, confident and brash Manchester City were emerging, signing top class talent like Carlos Tevez and posting a ‘Welcome to Manchester’ billboard within less than two miles of Old Trafford. 

When Sir Alex was asked in 2009 about the prospect of City again finishing above United in the Premier League, he famously responded “not in my lifetime”. He also referred to the Blues as “noisy neighbours”. 

What the Reds boss really needed was a restraining order from those neighbours in sky blue. 

Just three years later, City were crowned Premier League champions for the first time in 44 years and, of course, it had to be Manchester United that we snatched the title away from on that dramatic day against QPR in May 2012. 

United would take that same title back in 2013, but it would be their last league triumph to date as City’s domestic dominance thereafter resulted in seven Premier League titles and included our own Continental Treble – Manchester is the only English city to have achieved that Holy Grail. 

Has the Blues’ dominance over the past 15 years resulted in Manchester derby supremacy? Not exactly, City have won 15 and the Reds 10, with four draws – all 0-0 – as well. 

Before our 2-1 win at Old Trafford in 2008, City fans had endured 34 years without success on United soil, but since 2011, we haven’t been able to stop winning there, with eight wins, two draws and three losses in 13 hops across the city – including the 6-1 demolition derby  in 2011 that Mario Balotelli added another colourful chapter to this ongoing soap opera with his ‘Why always me?’ t-shirt. 

Just one of hundreds if not thousands of sidebars to this colourful, competitive and rarely dull fixture. 

Feisty, competitive, raucous and completely unpredictable – the Manchester derby is everything and more. 

Exactly what you’d expect sibling rivalry to be. 

Feature: David Clayton