Manchester Town Hall goes red after United win derby poll

All eyes will be on Manchester tonight as league leaders United take on City at Old Trafford, but the Reds have already won the first battle.

By Declan Whooley

The title race looks a formality at this stage with Fergie’s men fifteen points clear with just eight games remaining, but bragging rights will be up for grabs tonight and while it will mean little to the players perhaps, United supporters will be delighted to have won the first battle with the Town Hall displaying predominantly red colours.

Virgin Media created a Twitter poll, asking users of the social networking site to Tweet their support for either United or City to decide which colour to turn the Town Hall, and 84 per cent said 'red', with more than 20,000 messages of support sent for both teams, with 17,555 backing United and just 3,344 supporting City.

Pic credit: Mark Waugh

The Town Hall was then lit up to reflect the poll results, with the blue portion of the building dwarfed by the red.

City supporters will no doubt pay little heed, and often argue that when it comes to local support, that they are the number one team in town. Though the sight of such an amount of red will no doubt irk the blue half, a win at their neighbours would put a a nice gloss on what has been a disappointing season for Roberto Mancini's charges.

Should be a fascinating game at Old Trafford and we hope both teams shoot the lights out so to speak.