People had to bring football up as Newcastle beat Sunderland in Election Night declaration race

Since Newcastle's relegation from the Premier League a little over a year ago, the North East has been starved of its fiercest football rivalry.

Barring a cup meeting, this will again be the case next season following Sunderland's drop to the Championship and Newcastle's promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking. So, with their football sides unlikely to meet next season, the people of the two cities (or some of them, at least) decided to compete against each other by counting pieces of paper... Yep, the race to become the first constituency to declare their results on Election Night was very much on between Newcastle and Sunderland. Twitter appeared particularly impressed by the lengths that Sunderland had gone to just to try and get one over on their Tyneside rivals. Just look at this for organisation... https://twitter.com/GoggleboxQuotes/status/872933417259814912 And, somewhat predictably, those staying up to see the first results roll in from the North East couldn't help but compare this Election Night rivalry with the one shared by the regions two major football clubs. https://twitter.com/sportingintel/status/872927078324342785 https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/872937751439704064 https://twitter.com/GabbyLogan/status/872924427914289152 https://twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire/status/872937416616751104 https://twitter.com/Chadboffin/status/872944725824765952 https://twitter.com/mashednmangled/status/872938039869419520 https://twitter.com/haynesygas78/status/872938026955132928 https://twitter.com/cookietriathlon/status/872937774466334724 As the tweets make clear, despite all their efforts, Sunderland were beaten by Newcastle in their bid to become the first to declare.