As this site predicted last Thursday, the game against Pompey at St Mary's in September and the return at Fratton Park in January will be "Bubble" fixtures with fans needing to travel to the game only on coaches arranged by the club's.

On Thursday evening Southampton FC & Portsmouth FC hosted a joint meeting of the Police, Employee's from both clubs and of course both Saints & Pompey fans.

The items on the agenda consisted only of arrangements for the two fixtures between the clubs scheduled for the Championship in 2025/26.

The first fixture on Sunday 14th September will see Pompey head to St Mary's and then the return in January at Fratton Park, the first thing emphasised was that both club's were acting together and that the intention was for the same conditions for both sets of fans when they travel.

The bullet points for the fixtures are as follows.

* Both clubs will be allocated the same number of travelling fans, 2,700 tickets, this will not be a problem for Saints where the away section is 3,000 and presumably the 300 empty seats on the day will be used to create a buffer zone between the two sets of fans.

But it will be an issue for Pompey fans, their normal allocation in the Milton End at Fratton to away fans is 2,000, with one section of the Milton End allocated to home supporters and that will mean some of these being moved to other parts of the ground.

* All fans will have to travel on pre arranged coaches by their respective clubs, there will be strict conditions on who can buy tickets, but I would hazard a guess that Saints will do this based on away games attended as usual

The main pick up point will be the respective stadiums, however unlike the last Bubble games in 2011/12 each club will also set up two other pick up points so that fans from outside each City will not have to travel to the grounds but have a more convenient pick up point.

* Once the coaches depart they will travel non stop to the stadium and fans will need to provide ID matching the name of the purchaser in able to receive their ticket on the coach after departure, this is no different from the 2011/12 games.

* At each stadium, the coaches will arrive and be parked in safe sterile areas and unlike 2011/12 each club intends to provide adequate food & drink as well as toilet facilities for the respective fans.

At St Mary's as was previously announced this will be the Melbourne Road Industrial estate, this will inconvenience some supporters who cut through the estate to enter St Mary's this entrance will be only for Pompey fans, food outlets will be provided and of course the away concourse and fan zone also has food & bars.

At Pompey it could be a different matter, although we were assured that the Milton End had adequate toilet & refreshment facilities, I am still not convinced that will be the case, it is a fairly small enclosure with limited access, there is no concourse and although they are planning food & drink facilities in the sterile area at Fratton we will just have to hope it doesn't rain.

In truth there was nothing that we weren't expecting, it was made clear that the driving force between this was the two clubs themselves and that discussions had been taking place for quite a while and that this very much the clubs putting this forward rather than the Police enforcing it.

The police involvement in the meeting was fairly minimal and was more about how they intended to make sure that the impact on the communities in the vicinity of both stadiums was minimal and that there was no public disorder, although as you would expect they were reticent in revealing there exact plans for doing this.

The questions from the floor were mainly on how the coaches would work and what facilities would be provided.

The Portsmouth fans present were in the main a little older than the Saints fans in attendance, although they wished that a Bubble game was not needed, they seemed to realise a little more than our fans, that this fixture has a long history of violence dating back to the 1960's and were therefore a little more accepting that to stop the violence that this needs to happen.

Personally I have been to many games between Saints & Pompey both home and away since 1974, I have to admit that the only two that did not see major disorder were those two bubble games in 2011/12.

The general consensus was that this fixture is more volatile than most other Local Derbies because it is so rarely played, meaning that the levels of excitement were more intense than Derbies played season in season out.

Portsmouth FC Andrew Cullen was present and he commented that from his experience in football if the two teams play each other season in and out, then the intensity would reduce and that he hoped that this fixture could be played in future without all these restrictions, hopefully in the Premier League.

These were admirable words and probably most in the room agreed, although I suspect most were of the opinion that if their club was promoted this coming season and so was the other, it would put a dampener on the occasion.

Sadly I think that his comments were hopeful rather than easily achievable, this is a hatred not just between two football teams, but two Cities, there are 80 year old men who hate the other side of the divide with a passion, it will take more than playing each other for a few seasons in a row to stop this game becoming just another local derby.

All Photos Via Reuters

SaintsMike7167 added 11:17 - Jul 29 It was always gonna be the case, personally I couldn't stand going down there in velvet bus, but I understand the concerns.
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Bowlercow added 12:02 - Jul 29 In the last bubble to fratton the coach I was on was spat at,tomatoes were thrown at it and the police stood by and watched it happen That sort of behaviour must be stopped
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UgandaSaint added 05:45 - Jul 30 As a veteran of the local derbies in the 60's, where we would stand in the Fratton and throw stink bombs, coins and bottles of urine at each other, then fight our way back to the railway station, Bowlercow complaining about spit and tomatoes seems a bit trivial.
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