I lived in Portsmouth for 20 years before escaping home a couple of years ago. If you are talking hatred I'd put the Pompey - Southampton derby on a par with ours and for similar reasons. Whilst ourt derby goes back to the Civil War theirs is heavily inflamed because scab labour was drafted in from Southampton to bust the Portsmouth dock strike. The closest I ever came to getting a good beating in Portsmouth was for wearing my red and white shirt - it was only because I managed to point out the ship crest before the first punch was thrown and this was on the day we played Liverpool in the FA Cup final. I never wore my colours out in Pompey after that - the verbal and threat of physical abuse was not worth the hassle.
Think we should all agree the Celtic rangers derby is the one, we would all love to attend that one, well get this a irish hoops fan told me very similarly they would like to sample ours, think that says a great deal, regarding softy southerners.
When I was a kid in the 70s, the Chester v Wrexham game was pretty tasty. The Chester v Crewe game was sporadically interesting, but then Crewe spoilt it all by getting good.
Well the Old Firm has to be the most hostile atmosphere I've ever experienced at a derby game, the aftermath in Glesga is like Belfast on July 12th. Been to a few now, mainly at Ibrox, it's certainly an experience I'd recommend, although your now in for a long wait. The pure bile & mass hate that come out makes the hair on your neck stand up. This though is based on hunners of years of religious hate. West Ham/Millwall is a similar thing but on a much smaller scale without the religion thrown in. Do we define it purely on the hate level? There are several smaller clubs who loath each other. So taking it on size of clubs/crowds, history, pure bile levels I'd go this way; Old Firm Us/Mags West Ham/Millwall. Folk can bleat on as much as they like about our derby being meaningless but how many rivalries, apart from the dear old green place predates football for almost 300 years? Edit- pissed myself at the spuds/asre one, I mean, haway, ffs, .
And when you see liverpooland everton fans sitting next to eachother and they reckn thats a massive derby lol. Arsenal v spuds overrated aswell. Apart frm ours and the olf firm i'd say man utd and liverpool genuinely hate eachother as do the bristols, sheffields and pompey southampton.
To be honest I don't really count Celtic and Rangers, simply becaue the hatred is more about religious bigotry than football..It also makes me laugh that the people making these comments are writting our derby off as meaningless, yet they felt compelled enough to make comment on it..This wouldn't be the case for me say for example for one of the London derbies, which really don't interest me enough..
As far as bragging rights goes, I'll respect your local derby. You all seem to work and live amongst each other so it's more than just a footy match. As for ANY of the big London derbies, they're a joke. Arsenal vs Spurs is historically a decent game of football, usually with plenty of goals but that's because they both forget how to defend in this game, they basically try to outscore each other, good entertainment but it's hardly heated, I've seen more passion from B&Q staff than that **** pit Emirates stadium. All you hear at the Emirates nowadays is moans about Gazidis and Santi Cazorla's name on a loop. United vs Liverpool has lost a bit of it's passion recently too, that's down to the bindippers fall from grace, once they (if ever) start competing with us then they'll reignite the passion a bit more but City are currently our priority for obvious reasons, beating City means more nowadays to United fans. And with that, there's your answer, the fact that the fire and passion is there DESPITE having **** all to challenge for between your two sides - it makes for a passionate derby, although often boring to watch for the neutral.
A cup final or going for 4th place would be a derby for everyone to look forward to, like Arsenal vs spurs or Chelsea arsenal.
I agree in terms of a spectacle, 7 times out of 10 our games are dire to watch from a footballing perspective. But of all the things that matter in a derby, I would suggest the spectalcle doesn't rank highly.
