That wasn't at Fratton mate? Now when you're good enough to get another match here you can post that as much as you like
After 7 years of sensible conversation all of a sudden we're playing Portsmouth again and even Fran is accusing people who live just a few miles from Southampton as being sub-human. I think it's disgusting! I'll have you know I was briefly married to a girl from Portsmouth! Yeah, she did have a strangely shaped head, ate raw meat and was covered in long dark hair that grew in places that it never should have but my 2 daughters are absolutely fine!
Suggest you doing what I did, I think it was early around March time in the 60s, I seem to remember it being bloody cold. My ship came into port just in time for me to get to the match. I had a genuine Saints shirt so I wore it under my jacket and jumper in the Pompey supporters end behind the goal. Just before half time I took my coat and jumper off to reveal my Saints shirt as my Shipmates had dared me. There was a lot of good humoured banter until Saints scored the winner I seem to recall. Although no trouble as such especially as I had quite a few burly mates with me!!
When did the bile and physical/verbal hatred (on both sides) really start to get out of hand? My Grandfather (RN) was one of many who, in the years just after the war, would regularly watch Pompey at Fratton Park one week and then watch Saints at The Dell the following week. I, for one, when I lived and worked in Plymouth, was best mates at work with a Saints fan. One year, for children in need, we raised a good few quid in the office when I spent the day wearing his Saints shirt while he wore my Pompey shirt. We both used to deal each other plenty of banter, sometimes to the point where, in cricketing terms it might have been construed as 'sledging', but it was always good humoured and ended with a pint after work.
Obviously it's way before my time but I always got the impression that some of your fans started to resent us doing well and generally around that time was the rise of hooliganism too so it just ballooned from there really. To be honest if we played each other more regularly it might settle down a bit, but as there always tends to be big gaps between matches the bitterness on both sides festers for years and then explodes. I don't think the local media help things either personally.
I was aware of the rivalry due to the humourous and light hearted songs that Saints fans used to sing about Pompey at the Dell during the 70's like "Fratton Park is falling down" etc but thought it was just local rivalry banter. When I left school and started a boalbuilding course at college I realised just how much Pompey fans hated us and it was the first time i'd ever been called a "Scummer". I then visited the Fratton End as a guest of theirs and obviously trusted them to not let on where I was from!... and the songs I heard there were pure vitriol against us. Ever since then I have enjoyed winding up any Skates I have come across with relish but I have never really hated them, I have just enjoyed lording over them for most of my football supporting life!..
On holiday on the Isle of Wight in 1977, me and three mates got lost at night trying to find our campsite. We fell in step with a bloke who was probably in his 20’s (we were 16) who was also lost. He asked us where we were from, and when we said “Southampton”, he asked if we were Saints fans. One of my mates said “not really into football”, which he wasn’t, but the rest of us were. To which this Pompey supporting bloke replied “that’s good, I won’t have to fight you then”. Which still seems very weird all these years later. Was he going to fight 4 of us? Why? It wasn’t even football season, and we were all lost up a country Lane in the Isle of White, in the middle of the night.
You've just reminded me of the skinny spotty ginger teenager in a pink Pringle jumper with a voice like Alan Ball, jumping up and down in front of about a dozen of us squealing "come on Sarfampton!" with the come on then gesture, arriving at the away end at Nottarf in '84. We all just looked at each other and starting pissing ourselves with laughter... I bet he still tells the story of the day he took on a group of Scummers on his own...
Mate I have said many times before in the late 40s I met some Pompey lads as I had a bit of conflict as my grandfather supported Pompey (ex RN) as did his youngest son also RN (my uncle) but his Eldest Son my favourite Uncle ex army used to support Saints. So when they all came out of the forces. It was Pompey one week Saints the next so as a treat as I was taken to both. Over the course of that first season it turned out there was a few doing exactly the same so we used to meet. At its biggest our group was around a dozen or so. As we grew older national service for some and volunteers for others including myself the numbers dwindled however a group of us managed to meet up for games during our service time. When we were all demobbed or invalided out. We started to meet fairly regularly one match Pompey the next Saints. Even through the troubles at grounds we used to carry on. So much so both Saints and Pompey were playing London sides on the same day and Millwall Fans I think started to pile into Pompey fans Just as we were boarding a train. We didn't board and went and helped the Pompey fans probably making it even numbers Saints and Pompey versus quite few Millwall fans. We more than held our own. There has always been some good humoured banter with both sets of fans. We carried on meeting at each others ground for Decades although the number of us dwindled down to four in the late 90s. Again we still met at matches although we did get a bit more choosy as to which matches to go to, although it meant as we were in the div one or premier they chose to come and see the better teams. When we moved to St Marys they were with me a lot of the time. Although sadly two went to the great football ground in the sky not too long after. They put their hands in their pockets when the buckets were coming round in our bad days. (Each putting very large notes in to the bucket). Sadly they too went to the big ground in the sky the last one a couple of years ago now although he did just see us get back into the big time. People I will always remember for their generosity and humour ......God bless them all.
That’s my own family experience Dev, my Dad was in the RN during and after the war, and although a Saints fan all his life, would always go to Fratton if his ship was in Portsmouth and Saints were away. He never spoke of any animosity between the two sets of fans, and indeed, many people supported both teams. I suppose the hatred started in the 70’s with the rise of hooliganism.
Still the best response to the weird vitriol spouted by many PFC fans. A great shame that a once great rivalry has deteriorated so badly. I was told by my dad about both sets of fans going to each others games in the late 40s early 50s. He felt it changed when the yob culture of the 70s combined with Saints slowly becoming the more successful club. I have horrible memories of being terrified on a rail trip back from Fratton in '74, it was pure hate by then. I loath the 'get your gun' song, we should be better than that. My best mate is a Pompey supporter and a fine human being. We will give each other hell over the next few weeks. It (and the result) will not affect our friendship. At least we won't piss on their seats as a classy 'gesture'. Except maybe in excitement if we go 6 up.
Totally agree. I was taken to Fratton Park a couple of times by an older relative, in the 1960s, as a kid, It was totally fine. I can even remember a few of the players, I think. For example, Eoin Hand, Nicky Jennings, Ray Pointer, Mike Trebilcock. They were ok, and going to Pompey was fine, while Saints were playing up country. Can't be done now. Great shame.
My parents went to fratton one week and then to the dell the other. At the time pompey were a quality first division side. Personally i think you are a bunch of c@@@s
The sad jobsworth steward, who's obviously copped a squinny, because we equalised, trying to stop the Pompey bench celebrating. What an idiot.
