IF ever you wanted an example of how important television's role in football now is, you got it at Eastlands on Sunday - 22 players on the pitch and 21 television cameras watching the pitch.

There was a time when TV coverage of the Manchester derby consisted of three or four cameras at the ground, Gerald Sinstadt perched in the commentary box and an hour of highlights on a Sunday afternoon.

How times have changed. Sky Sports had 80 staff working on yesterday's derby. And this wasn't even their biggest game of the day.

But sitting in a truck in the car park outside City's Stadium, watching a bank of screens, one man knew the importance of a Manchester derby only too well.

Match director, Steve Smith's job was to make sure the viewers - whether at home or in the pub - saw everything and missed nothing. No pressure, then.

"It should get easier as you get more experienced," laughed Smith, a jovial Middlesbrough fan who has been directing Sky's live football coverage for almost a decade.

"But the thing about football is that you never know what's going to happen. I've done 700 games, but every game is different.

"It's challenging. The important thing is to tell the story of the game. There's extra pressure on Sky this season too, with the arrival of satellite rivals Setanta on the scene.

While the official line is that Sky welcome the competition, the scheduling of live Football League games up against Setanta's Premier League coverage might be read as a little aggressive.

As the 1.30pm kick-off approached, match commentator Rob Hawthorne had his statistics at the ready.

"If Sven wins today, he will have had the best start of any City manager since Sir Alex Ferguson arrived at United," Hawthorne said.

"Brian Horton won his first two, but lost the third."

Hawthorne, who has been with Sky for 12 years since arriving from Radio Five Live, spends a full day researching every game he reports on.

"You would probably only use about two per cent of your research, because you hope the game is so good that you don't have to use it.

"It's really there as a back-up. The other night, I was doing United's game at Portsmouth. When Paul Scholes scored, it was useful to know that it was a goal that made him United's top Premier League scorer.

Experience

"So how was Fergie on Wednesday night, Rob?

"I had the pleasure of having to interview Sir Alex after that game," he said.

"It's always an interesting experience for anybody. You could see the anger he was feeling inside, with the Ronaldo sending off, emotions were running a bit high. But with a manager like him, you always expect a positive response about his players."

Virtually all of Sky's team predicted a United victory yesterday. It just goes to show that, for all of the satellite TV giant's technical trickery, it's the football that will always be the centre of attention.

At least Hawthorne was spared the experience of interviewing Fergie after yesterday's defeat.

That job went instead to touchline reporter Guy Havord, whose afternoon had included a live pre-match interview with Kasper Schmeichel's proud dad Peter and a dash to find out the extent of Valeri Bojinov's early injury.

"Most players and managers are pretty clued up now about the way the media works," said Havord.

"Some are ready right on the whistle, some need 10 or 15 minutes, maybe longer. The players are pretty media savvy too. It's not often you get anything too eccentric - sadly!

"Jamie Carragher has turned a question round on me once or twice. I asked him about a penalty decision and he's thrown it back and said: `Well what do you think?'

"But it's not for me to say whether it's a penalty or not. You have to steer a middle ground."

Back in the director's truck, Steve Smith was happy with his afternoon's work.

"You just hope it's an entertaining match," he said.

"For me 4-3 is always the ideal result! But the game had plenty of drama, and its fair share of talking points.

"But all that really matters for the viewers is the result."

So while City's fans will be enjoying Sky's efforts yesterday for a long time to come, United's supporters will probably have taped over it with the latest Corrie episode by the time you read this. Tweet