Manchester United v Liverpool: Sky Sports News' Peter Stevenson investigates the rivalry

Sky Sports News reporter Peter Stevenson looks at the rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool which has lasted well over a century.

It’s one of English football’s oldest - and fiercest - rivalries and the spark that’s led to 120 years of intense commercial, and more recently sporting friction, can be traced back to the creation of a 36-mile stretch of water.

The Manchester Ship Canal was a controversial idea, designed to help the city’s textile merchants bypass what they saw as Liverpool’s expensive port charges.

Writer and tour guide Jonathan Schofield, says the dream in the 1890s was to “bring the sea to Manchester”.

There was resentment that more than half the money raised by exporting a bale of Manchester cotton went into the Liverpool coffers.

And strangely, the fortunes of the canal have mirrored that of the two footballing giants.

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The 1970s and 80s saw a decline in shipping traffic, but dominance of England and Europe by a star-studded Liverpool side. They won 11 league titles and four European Cups. 

New investment and commercial development in the 1990s coincided with United’s renaissance under Sir Alex Ferguson.

He inspired a revival that saw United become champions 13 times, and twice conquer Europe.

These days, cruises along the canal to Salford Quays leave from Liverpool, but it’s not a popular destination among Merseytravel staff, who run the ferries.

Liverpool season-ticket holder Louise Saati says she won’t even contemplate shopping there or even flying from Manchester.

“It’s a very, very deep dislike. It’s as deep as it can get,“ she said.

Colleague Therese Draper recalled how her street in the 70s and 80s was full of red decorations every year to mark yet another successful league campaign for Liverpool.

“Rivalry with neighbours Everton is different, a bit like a brother and sister falling out for a few days. But United? No, no, no. They’re just not family," she said.

So decades of disagreement will be behind Sunday lunchtime’s confrontation at Old Trafford. It will certainly be no place for the faint-hearted.

Liverpool, smarting from their Champions League exit in midweek, will be desperate to regain some Premier League pride. Worryingly, defeat would leave Brendan Rodgers’ side 10 points behind their great rivals in the race for a lucrative top-four spot.

How they’d love a repeat of Old Trafford’s first ever game in 1910, when Liverpool headed inland… and ran out 4-3 winners.

Watch Manchester United v Liverpool live on Sky Sports 1 at 1.30pm on Sunday.