This will be a busy week for both Southampton & Portsmouth supporters, because at the end of it there will be the first local derby game since 2019 and the first in the League since 2011/12 season.

It cannot be denied that Saints V Pompey is considered one of the most passionate derby games in English football, it might not be the most obvious to those who are not from Hampshire, but for those that are, it is as important as any of the so called big derby clashes.

The reason for that is it that it is not just about football, it is a clash of two cities, two cities that are rivals in every shape or form, be in football or tiddlywinks and everything in between.

In Liverpool & Manchester the two sets of supporters live in the same communities, families have United & City fans in them, whether you are Red or Blue is not down to what area you live in or family, it is a matter of choice, you pick your side at an early age and stick with it.

The London derbies are even more diverse, in the past perhaps Arsenal & Spurs fans for instance, lived in different parts of London, but that is not the case now, as the population of London shifts from the centre to the suburbs, Arsenal & Spurs fans live side by side in the towns of Hertfordshire etc.

There are some clubs in London who are still live mainly in the traditional areas the club comes from, Millwall, Charlton & Crystal Palace for instance, but many others do not have the bulk of their fanbase living that local anymore due to urban migration.

Then there are the derbies that are from the modern era, Brighton V Palace, that is a strange one, there is no logical reason, other than neither seemed to have a rival they could hate or more to the point hated them back.

Sadly there are also clubs who don't have a derby at all, Bournemouth look towards Southampton and try to manufacture a rivalry, but it is not reciprocated, if they look westward, Exeter is about 90 miles away and they are not interested either, their rivals are Plymouth who are a bigger City, stadium & fanbase, it is a bit one sided, but still fiercely contested.

So on the South Coast there is only one big rivalry Southampton & Portsmouth & although supporters on both sides will claim that the other is irrelevant and that they don't care about them, but they do !

So for both sides of the divide this is a big week and a big day on Sunday.

The fact that this fixture has rarely been played since both clubs joined the football league in 1920 and were in the same division for the next 5 seasons make it all the more eagerly awaited.

Indeed from 1927 until 1960 when both clubs found themselves in the old Division two, apart from friendlies etc, the two clubs had not met in 33 years and since that 5 year rivalry back in the 1920's the clubs have not been in the same division for that amount of time since.

Indeed since 1966 when Southampton were promoted to the top flight, the two clubs have only met in the League for 6 seasons, so that is 12 games plus 6 meetings in either the FA or League club a total of 18 meetings in almost 60 years.

In that same period Liverpool will have played Everton 120 times in the League and God knows how many times in various cup competitions, they have even played each other at Wembley in cup finals.

This is the same for most of the other big Derby games, perhaps no other rivalry has met so few times in the modern era.

So this lack of an actual game to sort out bragging rights has upped the ante in this rivalry, defeat is unthinkable as you never know when you will get the chance to get revenge.

So in both cities this week, all the talk will be about the game, in Portsmouth they will have a 5 minute rant about "Scummers" and end it by saying that they don't care about us and that we are forever in their shadow and how they will really show us who is the best team.

In Southampton we will be a little more reserved and talk about how on paper we have the best team, a bigger stadium and more fans, we will state the facts, how we have had a bigger average attendance in all but 2 of the last 65 years., how we have been above them in League position in every season for that period bar 7 seasons back in the 00's as we headed to financial crisis.

Southampton supporters are passionate about their club, but we deal in facts & not Ports myths, we don't feel the need to tell anyone who will listen that we are the best fans in the world, we go about our business without boasting.

But everything will come to a head at 11.55am on Sunday as the two teams come out on to the pitch, over 30,000 people in St Mary's, a crowd not seen in the League at Fratton Park since 1977 will produce an almighty roar and 5 minutes later battle will commence.

Of course this article is biased towards Southampton, but it would be, however I have stayed with the facts and nothing else and if our side plays to its capabilities, then the result will hopefully be decided long before the end of the game, but history tells us it doesn't always go that way as in 1984 in the FA Cup when perhaps the best Saints side in history had to wait till injury time to win the game, Steve Moran popping up at the far post to send 9,000 Saints supporters wild, if you are going to win this fixture there are only two ways, either win it well or win it with the last kick of the game.

All Photos Via Reuters

Bowlercow added 10:06 - Sep 8 Luv it Nick Just Luv it There is no more bitter a rivalry in the country And for good reason As a solid leftie I detest being called a scummer I hated the way they booed during the minutes silence for Ted Bates I once officiated at a Pompey youth game and was subjected to abuse before,during and after the match because Southampton was next to my name in the programme Believe me I would of had a party had they folded a few years ago

4

Southamptonfan added 11:00 - Sep 8 There arn't too many games that stop me sleeping at night, but come this Friday night, I won't be getting much sleep. This is a huge game and we have to win it. Losing is unthinkable. Come on Saints, do us proud. Every Saints fan needs to make the stadium hostile and loud.
3

redwight added 11:03 - Sep 8 4.45pm, 28th January 1984, the highest high ever as a Saints fan.
5

InTimeAddedOn added 14:07 - Sep 8 Agreed Redwight, and accompanied by one of the best post match quotes of all time by Lawrie McMenemy in response to the bananas the skates were throwing at Agboola and the coins they were throwing at our players when they took throw ins. He said in a post match interview with Jimmy Hill “We got a good result, £4.50 in small change and 2lb of bananas” Top man Lawrie Mac 🙂

3

underweststand added 17:05 - Sep 8 Very few meetings between the clubs (as you noted Nick) but it's strange how the volume of aggression generated in both camps has seemingly covered several generations. The rather impolite name (given to Saints by Pompey fans) might date back to a 1950's Dock strike in Portsmouth, when stevedores from Soton were brought in to service the port's services which then upset the Pompey strikers. A decade later.. in the early 1960's there was more violent reactions ON the pitch, with those notorious tussles between ..Saints' 5'7" winger Terry Paine and Pompey's 6' 4" LB Roy Lunnis which led to fisticuffs and red cards on more than one occasion with Paine never flinching when coming up against his burly ex-Marine opponent. Another long pause in derby games, brought only bad memories and ill feeling that has sadly spilled over to both fan bases, but hopefully common sense will prevail remembering that these meetings should be about football - and not physical revenge.

1

Bowlercow added 19:53 - Sep 8 Undertheweststand You are correct about the Southampton dockers in the 50's It stemmed from a pre war strike by Southampton workers The employers bussed in Pompey dockers to break that strike.So in the 50's it was an act of revenge In the 70's Sothampton dockers refused to take ferry traffic (Channel Islands)from Porsmouth but later Pompey took ferry traffic (Santander) from Southampton This hieghtened the competive sprit,and in many cases, hatred felt between the two places

0

UgandaSaint added 06:33 - Sep 9 I hate Pompey, as an 11 year old I was walking out of Fratton wearing my red and white scarf when a youth about 18 and twice my size kicked me in the back of my leg. I'm now 73 so I hope the coward is dead. Best statistic to show the rivalry between the 2 clubs is that our derby holds the record for the most people jailed for violence related crimes following a match.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls