Mate i lived up there for years, it may be treated as a derby, but it isn't, Liverpool against the Mancs or us against City aren't Derbies either - no matter Sky trying to do a 'north west derby' or 'north east derby' tag onto them to make them sound more exciting,
Cna't wait till we play Spouthampton in the 'Koeman Derby' or maybe we can tag irt a s the 'Port Cities Derby'
Derby for me anyeways will always be the team from the same City, or in Londons case the closest rival in that City or on one town teams like Sudnerland - it'll be the nearest local rival - so Newcastle. Else you get into the situation where half of Arsenals games every season are Derbies
Just cos the fans don't like a team and want to smash them doesn't make it a Derby game, just means they don't like them, i can't stand Newcastle but not gonna start calling it a Northern Derby when we play them