Kneegate or Tysongate Take Two

Back in August, the post match scenes at the City Ground following our dramatic win over arch rivals Derby County were dubbed ‘Tysongate.’ This second encounter at the Sheepdip, is likely to be dubbed ‘Kneegate’ after Reds’ boss Billy Davies accused his Rams counterpart Nigel Clough of assaulting him.

The 3-2 City Ground victory in August, ended with the players and coaching staff of Derby County, throwing every toy out of the pram. This was due to Nathan Tyson’s corner flag antics in front of the travelling Sheep support. It was a storm in a tea cup, but resulted in both teams having their wrists slapped and having to pay a fine.

This latest incident of handbags at ten paces involving the teams, will also come under scrutiny from the authorities, because of claims by Billy Davies, that Nigel Clough actually kicked him in the back of the leg during the touchline melee.

Davies runs the risk of being seen as a sore loser in this one, even if video evidence does show he may have a case. Nigel Clough did himself no favours in the first game after his outbursts and Davies risks the same here.

At the end of the day, it’s a derby and a fiercely contested one at that. Passions run high amongst both sets of supporters and seemingly the players as well. I say long may that continue, it all makes for a better rivalry in my opinion. No one was killed, no one was injured and no one has come out of it looking good. The FA will no doubt come down hard on both clubs, but they might want to see what actually happened first, before making a kneejerk decision.