IF YOU are at the Galpharm Stadium tomorrow promise me you will try to find a quiet moment to really take in what a ‘derby day’ means.

For a handful of seconds try and put to one side the feverish pitch of the atmosphere in and around the ground and try to imagine what it would be like if Town were playing such games every other week.

And in sending this message out I am not just trying to reach the fans but the staff, the players – even Lee Clark and Dean Hoyle.

Now I am not so naive as to think that Town are not fully focussed on stepping up into the Championship – be it via promotion or play-off – but the motivation could not be bigger than the prize that could be on offer this time round.

After a season of racking up more bus miles than anyone probably cares to recall in League I (or Division Three South as the map would seem to have it), Town could trade for a derby date virtually every third game next term.

Okay, so there are a lot of ifs and buts, however there is distinct potential that Town could move up to a Championship that will look like a northern regional division.

Promotion with Leeds (go on be generous you know you would miss them) would be the first step obviously, but if that could be complimented by the survival of Sheffield Wednesday and the failure of city neighbours United to reach the top flight you instantly have another four Yorkshire outings on the calendar – as you can probably safely factor in Barnsley and Doncaster.

Looking at the Premiership it is possibly unrealistic that three northern teams will plunge (although whether Portsmouth’s fate will be mere relegation or something far more drastic is yet to be seen) but Hull, Bolton and Burnley are all appetisingly short trips that would come with a spicy edge to them.

Chuck into the equation Middlesbrough, Preston, Blackpool and even Scunthorpe and you have a division that should see the coffers boosted by more significant numbers of away fans at the Galpharm, while Town supporters can look forward to a season where their Saturday evening meal will be no longer be served at ten minutes to midnight or is consumed in some service station halfway up the M1 or M6.

So if you are a Town player who hates buses or a fan who would like to get home in daylight on a few occasions, envelope yourself in tomorrow’s derby sensation and do your utmost to ensure that the dream comes true.

NOW the dust has settled can we please make our minds up what we want from an England football captain.

The regular reader of this column (yes one person has actually owned up) will know I have kept completely quiet throughout the whole John Terry farce.

I decided that, given the saturation coverage of this sad little scenario, I would do my bit for the environment while other papers laid waste huge tracts of forest as they wrote yards and yards of repetitive copy.

I resisted the urge – there is a pine tree near Tromso that will be eternally grateful to me.

While ‘Terrygate’ strangely opened up all kinds of moral arguments (I heard at least a couple of pundits finding themselves so confused that they ended up contradicting themselves) to me the nub of this story now is about just what do we expect from a captain of the national football team.

History weighs heavy on this one given that the likes of Billy Wright and Bobby Moore carried the mantle with distinction and dignity.

Even more to the point you have to consider those who were very worthy but denied the chance to lead out their country – the name Robert Charlton springs instantly to mind – because the right man was already in the job.

Society and soccer have changed over the years, yet we still seem to imbue the England skipper’s role with the kind of Corinthian spirit that in the 1950s and 1960s was still somehow relevant.

Other nations will have watched the Terry scandal unfold and have been giggling to themselves as England again beat themselves up over something that probably really doesn’t matter.

England boss Fabio Capello played his usual statesmanlike blinder in sorting the whole mess out and drawing a line under the matter, but as an Italian he was probably killing himself laughing in private – the Azzurri’s armband tends to be given to the most senior player in the squad and that is that!

Some of the comparisons that have been drawn regarding captaincy in sport have been totally redundant.

Any article that included the kind of line that said ‘but in cricket’ just needed ignoring – a different sport and a completely different job.

The more valid comparison would be between either code of rugby and football.

Both in union and league the captain is both the spokesman for his team and also the referee’s first reference point when it comes to disciplinary matters.

If football could roll back time and the same approach be adopted, then the skipper’s armband would have a value and it would really matter who was in possession of it – and also it would remove the unseemly sight of gangs of players surrounding referees.

If Sepp Blatter wants to leave his mark on international football, formally restoring the importance of donning the armband would be a legacy of truly positive proportions.

Until then it doesn’t really matter who takes the armband, and as for the British media questioning the moral standing of the nation through this issue – when Terry returned to action at Stamford Bridge he was hailed a hero, while Wayne Bridge was taunted all game long by Tigers’ fans as Manchester City lost on their visit to Hull City.

Go figure?!