AS new chairmen, Mike Ashley and Niall Quinn share a common dream.
A desperate desire to drag their respective clubs out of the doldrums and into the big time.
On the evidence presented here yesterday however, they've both got some way to go just yet.
Newcastle and Sunderland were forced to settle for a share of the points in a ferocious, but charmless draw at a gloomy Stadium of Light.
A match that promised to be a prize fight quickly turned into a messy bar brawl as both teams got stuck into each other on and off the ball.
Egged on by a frenzied crowd of nearly 50,000, this Tyne-Wear derby was low on creativity, but as volatile as a fireworks display in a TNT factory.
London and the North West may have superiority on the pitch, but neither region can lay claim to an atmosphere as awesome and white-hot as the one that dented my eardrums here.
The noise in the stadium was absolutely extraordinary, particularly for such an early kick-off.
PROPER FOOTBALL
The home fans cheered the warm-up as loudly as I've heard some goals celebrated this season and when the players appeared for the kick-off, the crushing wave of sound made every hair on my body stand to attention. This was proper football.
The fans kicked every ball and won every header in the stands, roaring on their teams and howling at each other with a barrage of time-honoured songs.
Michael Owen was jeered every time he came close and Joey Barton made himself very unpopular with a late challenge on Dickson Etuhu in the first half.
Few footballers can have fallen from grace in the manner of poor Alan Smith.
Once a fearless and prolific Leeds United striker he was at one point considered to be a future England No. 9.
Yesterday he became the anti-footballer, forced to shackle himself to the impressive Kenwyne Jones in a withdrawn defensive position.
Sam Allardyce praised his efforts in the post-match press conference and insisted that the former Manchester United player was happy just to get a regular game, but Smith must be frustrated to be used in such a manner.
Allardyce was a frustrated figure himself after the game.
He deflected most questions from the press, turning them back on his inquisitors and, at times, he seemed to be fighting an inner battle with his own temper.
He said that he was happy with a point and repeatedly claimed that the most important thing was not losing, but how he would love to have entered this international break with Sunderland's scalp in his back pocket.
'My glass is half-full,' he said at the end of the press conference, 'but your glasses are half empty, aren't they?'
The truth is that both managers could claim to have done enough to win it and neither one will be particularly overjoyed with a solitary point.
Allardyce desperately needs to win over the press up here and Roy Keane just desperately needs a win.
Both Sunderland and Newcastle have once again demonstrated that the London and the North West do not have a duopoly on passion in football, but neither of them have proved yet that they can match their more glamorous rivals on the pitch.
It's early days for the new empires of both Ashley and Quinn but, for the moment, they are both very much works in progress.
Milner (65) Milner cuts in from the left and curls in a delicious cross for Michael Owen, who misses the ball. So does goalkeeper Carig Gordon as the ball hits the far post and into goal for an unexpected equaliser. A quick corner routine sees
Grant Leadbitter deliver a peach of a cross to the far post of the Newcastle danger area. Danny Higginbotham runs from deep to escape his markers and crashes a header past Steve Harper to give Sunderland a deserved lead.
