It had taken 88 years but at last Saints met Pompey in the top division.

This game saw Saints and Pompey in the same division together for the first time in 11 years, of course there had been that famous FA Cup Tie 3 1/2 years earlier but Pompey had managed to get back to the top flight after a near 30 year absence.

The big surprise though was the attendance, for most of the previous season and the summer Pompey fans had been telling all that would listen that not only would they take the First division by storm and regain what they saw as their rightful place in the top 3, but that Fratton would be packed to the rafters week in week out.

In 1987 its capacity had been much reduced even from the 36,000 it held for the 84 cup tie, in part due to regulations concerning number of exits needed in certain areas of the ground and in part due to the rear section and roof of the Fratton End had now been removed, apparently when doing safety checks, the check for sturdiness and ability to take weight involved dropping a sandbag at a certain velocity, the sandbag had gone right through the floor of the Fratton terracing and being an elevated section had dropped a fair distance to the ground, Pompey fans had been lucky, possibly all that had prevented a disaster had been that rarely were there that many people on the terrace to put enough weight to cause it to collapse.

But Pompey fans would not rally to the cause, the seasons average was a fraction over 15,000 and they enjoyed only two 28,000 capciity sell outs for the visit of Liverpool and Man United, in fact given that this was their first season back in the top flight you would have thought their average would be a lot better than Saints, it was better bt only just and all of that could be attributed to those two sell out games, with the Dell at the time only holding around 21,000.

So the first top flight derby was witnessed by only 20,161 and banks of empty terracing in all areas, Saints for the record did not sell out their section either, but they only put the tickets on a restricted sale to season ticket holders only.

Pre game saw a major skirmish between the two sets of fans in a running battle along Goldsmith Avenue that the Police struggled to control, in the aftermath several Pompey fans had been slashed, one quite badly and the Police realising that they had lost control of the situation have never been caught napping since, hence the draconian measures needing to be taken ever since.

Funnily enough both teams had managers that had played for Saints, Chris Nicholl was starting his third season as Saints boss whilst Alan Ball had been Pompey boss for a year longer and had finally managed to get them promoted at the third attempt after throwing away seemingly nailed on promotion in his first two seasons.

Nicholl had seen the big names leave the Dell in his first two seasons and had been slowly rebuilding, so it was now pretty much his team and not McMenemy's that ran out football was changing and some Saints fans were disapointed to see certain players leave however they were not to know the circumstances going on behind the scenes n the game as players demanded more money, this would be a year when Saints youth policy would star to bear fruit, but not in time for this game.  

The first goal came on 21 minutes and had an air of controversy about it, Tim Flowers came to collect a hopeful ball lobbed forward, he hesitated for a moment, appearing to hear a whistle from the crowd which distracted his attention as he thought it had gone for offside, this was fatal and Vince Hilaire nipped in between Flowers and Derek Statham to loft the ball over the keepers head and give Pompey the lead.

Four minutes later and it was all level, Glen Cockerill surged forward and put in Colin Clarke one on one with Alan Knight and the Saints striker made no mistake. Three minutes after the break it was Clarke again who played a one two with Gordon Hobson and got his and Saints second.

Pompey looked dead and buried at this point, but Alan Ball reshuffled his pack and it paid dividends 16 minutes from time when ex Saints Ian Baird knocked down the ball and Clive Whitehead hooked home the equaliser, Saints paid for a momentary lapse of concentration again..

Probablt 2-2 was a fair result although in truth Saints just about shaded it.

After the pre match trouble the Police took no chances, Saints supporters where locked in the ground for the est part of an hour and then escorted back to Fratton Station with the Opta spotter plane overhead to ensure that there would be no repeat of the trouble.little did Saints fans know it would be 16 years before they returned for another league game.       

Photo: Action Images

felly1 added 22:55 - Dec 15 I was there that day.I was on leave from the army ,my abiding memory is the bricks being hurled from outside into the Saints fans stood in the Milton End.
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