Rarely can a defeat, and such a heart-breaking one at that, have been greeted with so much enthusiasm by the losers as Manchester City’s 4-3 reverse at Old Trafford.

Sports professionals are forever banging on about “taking the positives” from setbacks but for everyone connected with City, their performance and the whole occasion on Sunday showed that they really will be a force to be reckoned with over the next few months and years.

Despite being shorn of several of their best players and going behind after two minutes, City hung on to United like a terrier with a mouthful of trouser.

Every time United shook them off with a goal, they came back with a tighter bite. Even when the champions were peppering their goal during a period of dominance in the second half, City stayed in the game.

They were felled by Michael Owen’s 96th-minute winner, sparking wild scenes on the touchline and some enjoyable jousting from the managers.

Current England rugby manager Martin Johnson has said that he felt sure England would win the 2003 World Cup final after seeing how Australia celebrated their semi-final win over New Zealand and United’s joy, even allowing for the dramatic nature of the finale, was a few notches up on anything seen in a derby win for decades.

“They seemed quite excitable at the end which shows you what this win means to them,” said Mark Hughes. “It was reminiscent of some of the scenes with Brian Kidd and Alex Ferguson in days gone by and I saw Gary Neville running on the pitch like a lunatic.”

A smiling Alex Ferguson said: “Sometimes you’ve got a noisy neighbour and you have to live with it. You can’t do anything about them and they keep on making noise.”

Hughes responded by saying his former boss had better get used to it. “We are not going to go away,” he said.

Ferguson, for once, decided not to pass comment on City’s spending power — which was probably a good idea given the fact that his team on Sunday cost an estimated 126 million pounds to the 122 of City.

But he knows that the funding City have will keep them on an upward trend and that performances and occasions like that on Sunday - for all the defensive frailties on show - will help attract more big names next time the transfer window opens.

“We are disappointed to leave here with nothing, but that shows how far this club has come,” said Kolo Toure. “We showed to everyone today we have the qualities and the spirit to mix it up with the big boys.”

Ferguson photo by Phil Noble

Nowhere in the world can match the San Siro for the array of banners unfurled by fans.

Before kick off in Sunday’s derby, the Inter and Milan ends were transformed into huge colourful patchworks and throughout the game various slogans were unveiled, some funny, some rude and some downright mysterious.

“How can you represent Milan when your team has no Italian players?” read one Milan banner (despite the fact that Inter’s teenaged left back Davide Santon is Italian).

The Milan fans in the ‘Curva Sud’ were so wrapped up in unfurling their masterpieces that many of them failed to notice that Adriano used a arm to score Inter’s first before the Serie A leaders went on to win 2-1 and increase their advantage over their city rivals to 11 points.

It looked like some Rossoneri supporters had already given up their title hopes when they unveiled a huge banner saying (in English): “To be continued…”

No one was quite sure what that implied but there was no confusion over the best Inter sign.

“The temperature is forecast to be -11 by 22.30.”

PHOTO: A typical banner during a Milan derby. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

It’s hard to think of two coaches in the world with such an apparent dislike of one another as Inter’s Jose Mourinho and Juve’s Claudio Ranieri.

Even Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have got on better of late and the only coach to have real gripes with new Argentina boss Diego Maradona is Scotland no. 2 Terry Butcher.

The feud between Mourinho and Ranieri, which comes to the boil in Saturday’s match between Serie A leaders Inter and in-form Juve, originated at Chelsea where the Special One took over from the sacked Italian in 2004 and promptly went and won two Premier League titles.

The usually modest Ranieri feels he deserves more credit for building up the Chelsea team ahead of Mourinho’s arrival (Petr Cech and Arjen Robben for example) but the confident Portuguese is having none of it, saying Ranieri’s English at Chelsea was laughable and implying the 57-year-old is past his sell by date.

Their contrasting styles and the already strong rivalry between the two clubs promises fireworks this weekend, with Juve able to join Inter at the top with a win. ‘Grudge match’ is a horrid cliche, but just this once I think it applies.

Inter v Juve is actually known as the ‘Derby of Italy’ because they have battled against each other for the title so often.

The rivalry is fiercer than Inter v AC Milan in many respects. Remember, Inter were given the title when Juve were stripped of the scudetto and demoted in 2006. Inter then signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira off their rivals to further infuriate fans of the Turin-based club.

Despite talk of the two managers making peace, they will probably end up disliking each other even more after Saturday.

PHOTO: Claudio Ranieri blows a kiss to Chelsea fans knowing his days are numbered at the London club back in May 2004 REUTERS

One of the greatest things about Subbuteo, besides giving generations of kids endless table-topping fun, was the chance of studying the team colours chart.

Where else could you learn at a glance that your claret and blue squad could be either West Ham, Burnley or Aston Villa, or that Plymouth Argyle were the only team in the Football League to play in green shirts (as did amateur giants Hendon) and that Blackpool were unique for being the only team to play in tangerine.

I thought of that old chart for the first time in years this week as Bolton, Fulham and Derby County edged closer to relegation from the Premier League.

Forget about logos and sponsors names, as far as my generation is concerned all three teams play in identical kits — white shirts and black shorts — and they are on the brink of becoming the subject of a future pub quiz trivia question.

Q: What was unique about the relegation of Bolton, Fulham and Derby in 2008?

A: It was the first time three teams wearing identical colours were relegated together.

Derby are already doomed but if Bolton and Fulham join them — and that is far from certain as yet — it will be because they haven’t played well enough, not because of the colour of their shirts.

But is there anything in a club’s colours that determines its success rate? Bill Shankly certainly thought so, changing Liverpool’s kit from red shirts and white shorts to all-red in the early Sixties. He believed that it made Liverpool look more intimidating and perhaps he had a point, perhaps not.

Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, the three most successful clubs in English soccer all wear red, but Real Madrid, nine times European champions, play in all-white.

You can argue it until you are blue in the face, of course. Or in the case of Bolton, Fulham and Derby, white with fear as the prospect of Championship football edges closer.

PHOTO: New Derby owners pose with manager Paul Jewell in January 2008. REUTERS/Darren Staples