IT is one of the most intriguing Manchester derbies in years – and you couldn’t have it in a safer pair of hands, for my money.

This Sunday’s game won’t decide the title – I’m afraid that ship has sailed for City after the Crystal Palace defeat. But in these parts local bragging rights are everything to the fans.

As I know only too well there is never such thing as an easy afternoon when these two rivals play each other.

I’m glad to see that Mark Clattenburg will be in charge at Old Trafford – he is, for me, the number one referee in the Premier League going towards the European Championships next summer.

He has worked very, very hard on his game – his body language is so much better nowadays and he has got rid of that arrogance that you once picked up in him.

His level of accuracy and recognition of foul and non-foul makes him the most consistent referee out there at the moment, so he has all the tools to make sure we are just talking about the football come Sunday evening.

Mark is human and he has made mistakes – the last major one I can remember was the penalty he didn’t give in the Leicester v Manchester United game where he got absolutely castigated and wasn’t given a live match for ages. Others have done worse and refereed the next weekend but, unlike Mark, their faces fit with the PGMOL.

I just hope United fans have forgotten the last time he took charge of a Manchester derby – the 6-1 from October 2011.

But for some refereeing mistakes from Michael Oliver and a bad call from his assistant John Brooks on Monday night, City might actually still have an eye on the title this weekend. Instead, that result just handed the trophy to Chelsea on a plate.

How on earth they can still debate whether technology should be brought in to help our referees when you consider what is at stake in games like the one at Selhurst Park, I’ll never know.

I sat in a TV studio in Doha and said right away that Scott Dann was offside when he set up Glenn Murray for the first goal.

For me, Brooks was out of position – a yard away from where he should have been. If he raises his flag, he’s guessing.

Mistakes in those kind of clear-cut offside decisions simply should not be happening at the highest level.

Then you saw Oliver – a very good up-and-coming referee – miss a blatant handball from Murray, which should have been a penalty.

All it would take in both incidents is a short delay, a check on the TV replay, and away we go – definitive and correct decision.

Whether City win or lose the game from there you cannot really tell but with all the money and jobs at stake in the Premier League how can we continue to say “perhaps” technology would help?

We need the PGMOL to come out and say officially that their referees need some help. It’s high time the game was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

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I’M scratching my head about the timing of Wigan Athletic’s decision to sack Malky Mackay – it’s just ludicrous.

If they had turned round a few weeks ago and said it wasn’t working, I wouldn’t have agreed with it, but you could get where the club was coming from because survival is paramount.

But to leave it until now, when they are effectively relegated, what does it achieve?

Malky had been in the job 138 days, took on a bunch of players he didn’t sign, and was given nothing to spend. What exactly did the club expect? They never even gave him a chance.

What was wrong with letting him clear the decks in the summer and then get his own players in next year?

On the face of it the decision has been made by a new club chairman, so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.

Malky will bounce back. He’s a strong character and he doesn’t need to prove his managerial credentials to anyone after the job he did at Cardiff City in getting them promoted.

No-one, and I mean no-one, would have kept them in the Premier League under those working conditions.

He should take a couple of months to clear his head then get back into football, which shouldn’t be a problem. Players who have worked with him speak highly of him as a person.

Hopefully then he will find a club with a bit of potential but more importantly a chairman and ownership who will back him.

Gary Caldwell has been appointed as his replacement, but I’m sure the club isn’t thinking he’ll keep them up.

I remember him as a player – a good, honest lad. I reffed him a few times and cautioned him a few times. I wish him all the luck in the world.

But as a first job it’s a real frying pan situation.

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IT’S hard to get your head round what a different club Bury is nowadays.

After years of struggling and making every penny count, it’s great to see the place get a bit of investment.

Fair play to the chairman, Stewart Day, he’s put his money where his mouth is, and they are getting their reward because it looks like the Shakers will be in the play-offs at the end of the season.

That defeat at the weekend might leave them with a little bit too much to do for automatic promotion but what a great thing it could be for the town if David Flitcroft can get them all the way to Wembley.

I hear the club is throwing open their doors on April 21 for the rescheduled Southend game, which is a fantastic gesture. I spoke to the groundsman Mike Curtis the other day and he couldn’t believe the downpour they had that forced the first game to be cancelled – at five to three it was fine, and then, boom.

Whatever the weather – I hope everyone in Bury gets themselves to the Southend game. Hopefully they can cheer the club all the way to League One.

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SOME people never change, and after spending a couple of days in the company of Craig Bellamy, I can say he certainly hasn’t.

After doing some television work with him in Doha I can say hand on heart that he’s a terrific fella but he could moan for any country on the planet.

Suffice it to say he didn’t take Wanderers’ win over Cardiff City very well – and I took every opportunity to rub it in.

Fair play to him, though, he bought a couple of bottles of red wine in. But I’d say that’s the least he owes me after all the trouble he gave me as a player on the pitch.