This one will be my first ever live derby game so hoping that I have beginners luck and make a decent memory
The Alan Knight testimonial /friendly at Fratton Park in the mid 90s. We thrashed them like 5 - 1 or something like that but I've never witnessed anything like it coming out of Fratton Park at about 10.30pm on a school night. Absolute chaos and pretty scary !!! I had to be rescued by my old man in his car. Gave a street name from a phone box and hid and waited. I had a saints shirt on with no jacket. The car had a saints sticker in the back window so even that was risky! Got out of there. People were setting fire to cars and stuff. Mental
Yeah, that was a particular low point for the fish-fiddlers. What sort of mutant supporters smash up their own town ffs?
They did it in 2004 too didn't they? After they won FFS. Never been a bright brunch have they. Hope no police horses get assaulted this time. Swear that 2004 game set a record for youngest arrests for football violence too.
Think I’ve just been to four, but all as a kid. The 2-0 League Cup Beattie brace game in 2003. I think the video for that game has already been posted. The 3-0 game with the Dodd goal from a corner and THAT Pahars goal a couple of weeks later in the league. The 2-1 league win in 2004 with a Dexter Blackstock goal and a late Beattie winner And the Oakley screamer and last minute Crouch penalty winner in the FA cup 2-1 in 2005. Can’t find a video for that one. For all of those I was at a very 50/50 school where half the kids were Saints and half Pompey so it was…interesting. Don’t know if its just because I was on the Saints side, but I swear all the gobshites were Pompey fans. I was away at Uni for 2010 FA cup loss and the 2011 league draw so I’ve only been to Derby day wins, albeit not for 20 years.
Gentlemen. I just read this thread and will congratulate you you on your southampton blinkers. I saw no mention of the 2005 game at Fritton park., probably our last meaningful game where we ultimately got relegated. We were so bad, our best goalkeeper in 20 years made mistakes due to panic around him. It will not be easy
I may have posted this before but it's quite funny. It was the famous 1984 FA cup match and we decided to drive down to it via a hired mini-bus and the driver definitely took the scenic route and ended up going through Wickham and several other villages. We all had printed t-shirts with Frankie goes to Fratton on them in honour of the great man. We arrived fairly late and parked quite a way from the ground in a hospital carpark (appropriately enough!). We never encountered any groups of hoolie Skates as they were probably "patrolling" the other side of Fratton near the train station and Goldsmith Avenue for Saints fans. We got to the ground with about 10 minutes to spare and walked through a little cutway at the corner of the away end, about halfway through there was this skinny, pimply ginger kid about of 14 wearing a pink Pringle jumper and when he saw us he started bouncing up and down in front of us shouting "come on Sarfampton!" in an Alan Ball voice. Well we just stopped and looked around at each other and burst into laughter and carried on walking to the ground. I can just imagine him telling the story of when he fronted a group of Scummers now...
My favourite South Coast derby memory is from 11:00 on the 14th September, 2025, when George Long is announced in Southampton's starting line-up.
Yeah a decent watch that, relatively balanced although it repeats the Portsmyth's a bit much for my liking. I'll probably give it a re watch next week. One of my favourite parts are when then ask the Saints mush in town if he calls them skates and he replies "no I call them ****s" Oh and when they're talking about their mythical dock strike and one of them starts shouting "my dad lost his job!!!"
Same. The woman around the same time who's reluctant to fully explain the skate thing is great too. When I first saw this I recorded that whole skate/scummer section on my phone to show people when they ask about the derby.
My biggest memory is the FA Cup win at Fratton, where Moran scored the winner in front of the Saints end. I was grateful for Biley not being able to hit a barn door in the second half because he missed at least one glorious chance to put them ahead. I went to all the home games that I could get to, work permitting, but my general feeling is that I hate these games with a passion. The fans at both ends of the motorway seem to turn into arseholes of the highest order and there is too much anger for the atmosphere to be anything other than ugly, imo. I think the gap between the two teams for so many years, that lessened the frequency with which the two teams met, took away the previous more friendly rivalry and replaced it with what we have now, where even some fans on here are openly saying that anything but a win would be unacceptable. It’s just a game of football.
I agree with this. When i stsrted following Saints around 74 /5, i was not aware of the rivalry as i was too young. My first recollection was the listening to the match Steve Moran scored at Fratton Park. Prior to this i had always tgought of Portsmouth as a joke team , slipping down to the old Division 4 and having a succession of useless managers. I think Alan Ball was largely responsible for their resurgence and my first derby was when they olayed us at the Dell in Division One and beat us. That shocked me. This was thr first time i witnessed the intensity of the rivalry but it made me appreciate that the unexpected us possible in derbies. I think that the length of time before we played each other stoked the hatred. My grandfather used to watch Portsmouth , Southampton and Aldershot when he stopped playing football himself which i am guessing must have been 1930s. This was normal back tgen and football was not so tribal. For me the Beattie goal celebration is iconic but the defuning derby game for me was the match at Fratton Park under Redknapp where we were thrashed and ultimately relegated. I watched the game in the Prince William pub in Romsey with a mate. This is the worst ever performance and result i can recall as a supporter and it is akways on the back of my mind. In my mind, the Saints victories in the last 20 years strike me as being expected. I just feel that Portsmouth wins mean more to their fans than ours. Without doubt , they are far more passionate than ours but i also think have more idiots following them. Always makes me laugh when they trot out the barely articulate John Westwood for expert opinion ! I think a draw will be an excellent result on 14th but have to say it has been ages since both teams have been so easily matched.
Christ Ian. Between this and the politics board you really are a stereotype of self-loathing How on earth can you claim it means more to them?
