Hi Pompey Peeps, Just something I wanted to broach with you and get your opinion on. We currently have a cross-thread on our board set up by a Norwich fan (lovely set of fans) looking at the similarities between our two clubs recently. One Norwich 'fan' on there happens to reside in Pompey (although born in Norwich) and he has been venting his spleen and calling us scummers. I get the feeling this guy feels the need to side with the crowd as it were, adopt a mob mentality and spew vitriol. His loyalties are spurious to say the least. Anyway I wanted to gauge your thoughts on this. The guy does not bleed 'pompey blue', has no heritage or historical links with the area, and probably does not understand the history between our two cities - is he allowed to partake in such partisan behaviour and would you welcome it? Or am I asking a dumb question... The guy probably looks for a punch-up at weddings and obviously has issues.
Portsmouth has and always will be a footballing city centred around Portsmouth Football Club. If you go into the shopping areas on a Saturday you seldom see Chelsea/Man United/Arsenal shirts being warn unless by students who have migrated here on a temporary basis. This fact alone must rub off onto an "outsider" who is now living in the city as I believe it quite a unique scenario nationwide. I have friends who have moved down here from all over the place - none of them support Pompey, yet over time you see a certain progression into following the "local" team as the city is built upon the belief of "supporting your home team". Many of these friends will never claim to be Pompey fans, as they already have a first choice (to name a few amongst my friends, Arsenal, Burnley, Swansea, Ipswich, Man United), yet despite this they will pay their £30 and go watch 90 minutes at Fratton park on a regular occurrence! Some of these friends will refer to our neighbours as "scummers" etc as a casual term - mainly because its part and parcel of Pompey slang (I am assuming in the SO postcode "skates" is a slang term). Yet none of the friends would seek out trouble, none are violent or have hooligan tendancies - they just enjoy the banter, the football and general feeling of being "part of the city" if you will. I have a friend who lives in Southsea, not too far from me, who is a die-hard Southampton fan - yes we give him a bit of stick, and vice versa, but it is always in good jest. As for the Yellow birdie fan on your board - I think he is probably stepping over the mark slightly, but as I have said above, these slang terms will rub off on anyone who is living in such a city.
May i add that the above does not apply to everyone! I am Portsmouth born and bred - I have supported PFC since the day I knew what a football was, yet I have a admiration for Southampton FC and their whole set-up. You will not find me brandishing the "scummer" tag other than in banter - never with malice. It's an each to their own topic really - some Pompey fans, like myself, couldn't give two iotas about the "rivalry". I am a Pompey fan first and a football fan second. I don't care what anyone says, having 4 league teams on the south coast is what is important.
Being Southampton born and bred, I will always be Saint. If I ended up moving to somewhere far enough away to make trips to St Mary's impractical then I would probably want to watch the local home team from time to time and if I was resident long enough they might be adopted as a second team. I can't honestly see me buying into their rivalries though. I wonder how old our friend is? It's easier to have a balanced view when you are almost 50, rather than almost 25.
I can't buy into the Scummer/Skate thing - probably because I have lived away from Portsmouth for the same amount of time that I lived there (born & bred). I do enjoy the rivalry though - mainly because, apart from an occasional "ouch", it is usually extremely amusing. Maybe if I was a "real" football fan then Gillingham would be my second team as I've lived here so long, but it's only Pompey for me with a bit of interest in how some of our former players are getting on. (I'm well pleased I don't have to bother keeping up with Blackburn now that Benjani is back.)
Well said 3rd eye - life is too short to get too wound up - apart from a few of the real "scummer wummers" that get up my nose, most of them are quite normal, like us
As someone who has never lived in Portsmouth but have had relatives there in the past, have supported the club for 35 odd years and have always loved the place, I can say that Portsmouth is now in my blood. However, I don't suppose I could ever have the same depth of feeling as someone Pompey born and bred. I don't understand or share this feeling of hatred between cities or clubs that exists with some people. Football is tribal but not all tribes need to be at war with each other. Rivalry is healthy but hatred is so caustic.
A refreshing and sensible discussion on rivalry - I am Portsmouth born & bred but moved away when I was 21 - as mike says so rightly if your from Pompey you support Pompey - I only knew odd exceptions at school when we were struggling and that still didn't stop people going to FP week in and out. I have lived in Northampton (watched them) East London (watched the Hammers loads....possibly counts as a football affair I'm ashamed to say) and now live in Whitstable - and watch them in the Ryman. I only get to FP now 3 or 4 times a season due to money/time/distance but the minute I cross the creek I know I'm home. I love the banter between us and Saints as long as it is good natured...I remember being really chuffed for them when Bobby Stokes scored that goal as was genuinely pleased to see them do well. I can't do hate I'm afraid and certainly not over football - so I'd say the Canary needs to relax a bit tbh.
As someone who grew up in Fareham, and whose father worked in Pompey, I spent my early childhood mixing merrily with both Saints and Pompey fans. Later, I went to a Grammar school in the Havant area and was very much in the minority! There was plenty of banter, but nothing really nasty. I occasionally went to Fratton Park with my deluded chums and was frequently referred to as "Scummer" whilst standing in the Fratton End. This was all in the late 70s - very early 80s. I believe it all got a bit more serious after that. Probably the fact that Saints were promoted to the top flight(and later managing runners-up to Liverpool, and European football) at the same time as Pompey were relegated to the 3rd div(and then lower) had a marked effect on the relationship. I notice that the attitude of a section of Saints fans has hardened in recent years when the roles were (temporarily) reversed. Hopefully, both sets of fans having experienced the highs and very lows recently, a new era of friendly, civilised loathing can commence.Maybe, one day, I'll even go back to that grim old stadium and see how our best enemies are doing.
I doubt it would ever happen, but my Dad still tells me about his alternate footballing weeks - one week at FP and the next at The Dell. It didn't matter that he was a Pompey fan, he just enjoyed the football across the South Coast.
I'm with MikeCloud and 3rd Eye, I have absolutely no animosity towards Southampton and don't really buy into hurling insults and terms like Scummer at each other. Partly could be because I'm not actually from Portsmouth and have never lived there. As far as I'm concerned, Southampton are another Hampshire team and so I want to see them do well, along with all of Hampshire's other teams! Of course, I do feel a competitive rivalry with Southampton, but it's more of a friendly rivalry, like I have with one of my friends who's an Ipswich fan!
Evening Irmaos. I know exactly where Sweeves is coming from. I was born and raised in Chi and only moved to Portsmouth much later in life. I watched the club for years, long before moving here and only realised how strong the rivalry was, when I started living in the city and began fraternising with the natives. I still don't get it, even after all these years!
If I may say so, the whole "scummer hate" thing was a bit of a surprise to me during my teenage years. The reciprocal feeling only surfaced later and it always seemed that the Pompey fans had an huge chip on their shoulder. Saints fans didn't have an equivalent term of abuse to scummer until someone decided it would be a good idea to reciprocate, particularly during those years when our respective positions were reversed. . I have enjoyed talking to the Pompey fans on this site and I think we have broken down some barriers. I do remember my first visits to this board leading to some pretty hostile responses. But we are all friends now. Aren't we?
Some-thing I can certainly relate to, as our family moved to Plymouth when I was in my early teens. Most of my school mates were Argyle fans and I went to quite a number of games at Home Park with them. Even now I still regard them as my 3rd team, after Pompey and Havant & Waterlooville
It has been a refreshing debate as someone mentioned above and it's interesting to read people's comments from both sides of the 'divide' as it were. Mike made the observation about the term "scummers" being a casual term and part and parcel of Pompey slang. This would certainly make sense and people from outside who move to Pompey would perhaps need to engender that feeling of 'community' and be a part of it by 'doing as the locals do'. I have a work colleague (a proud Scot and Rangers fan) who lives in Titchfield and he feels the need to distance himself from me due to my origin and allegiance. To be honest I do not hear the word skates used often at all apart from a certain song that gets sung at St Marys. I don't believe in making derogatory or scurillous jibes at people; rivalry is created by fans, hate is created by others who have no love for the club or anyone else and just need a 'cause' to cling to.
With Christmas coming up, a brief idea for those WAGS look.ing for an unusual present. A couple of years back, my sister-in-law and her friend were thinking about what to get their respective husbands for Christmas. They both thought that a replica shirt would be a good idea. As it happens, my sister-in-law's, friend's husband is a Pompey fan and my brother a Saint. The ladies thought it would be a witty wheeze to swap their purchases. I wish I could have seen my brother's face (highly unamused, apparently) when he opened up his gift of a bright new Pompey shirt. No doubt the Saints shirt went down equally well! The shirts were exchanged, and everyone is still married to who they were before, I think.
That is one seriously warped sense of humour Channon Unless.......... it took me a while but.......... it's a coded message to your loved ones to get you a Pompey shirt
I had been a Saints fan for about 15 years before I became aware of the animosity of the fans of our respective clubs towards each other and that was only because I went to work in Portsmouth. For most of the guys I worked with it was just banter but there were a couple of guys for whom it was real hatred and I have to say quite nasty. I have witnessed the same thing amongst one or two Saints fans I have known over the years especially a guy who used to sit near me at the Dell who would hurl in a most unpleasant way the most abusive insults at any ex Pompey player in the visiting team. I meanwhile have seen the light and have nothing but feelings of great affection for our near neighbours.
My (step) father-in-law did that when his two boys were young. One is now a ST holder at St Mary's and the other is a ST holder at Fratton Park.
