Haven't you learned by now, that I don't indulge in that playground attitude, yet..? Some of you really do have to start learning that being a fan is not about hating the other team. It's about loving your own.
"These are not the droids that we are looking for ... " Oh come on SecondStain, i usually share your sentiments, but even this old fart woud have a little chuckle if we did send them down that day. Are you really telling me that nothing stirs inside you when you hear they have had a negative scoreline? That's what rivals are about; a little bragging rights. Which is why i want them to survive as a club, as it would feel strange not having a natural local rival. I know you are no robot really.
I know what you mean Le Tiss, and yes, there is a part of me that would find it amusing. That would be balanced by the feeling that it would further entrench the hatred on both sides. Actually, if we really wanted to get at those who delight in calling us "scummers" then winning a game to keep them up would be cool. Can you imagine how they would hate that!
Surely though there is a difference in wanting to win just to get a team relegated, as opposed to wanting to beat them because of local rivalry? Or maybe alternatively wanting to get the points on the board to win the championship? I certainly don't give a rats ass if it is us that sends them down that part of the game is incidental......I just want Saints to win because of the rivalry and because of the championship. I don't seek revenge just because a few morons were happy when we went down. I guess it would be a bit more ironic if it happened to be us. In truth though whether if we won it would send any team down, has no bearing. The win is what is important the other bit are incidental
I want Saints to win every game and beating Pompey will be even sweeter, but I don't want to make this game any bigger than it is. I want the team to play their best football and not get caught up in the occasion. Promotion to the PL is the best revenge.
I agree. While it would be lovely to put one over on our rivals; promotion means an awful lot more at this stage of the season.
Like the people above have said, it's the win that will be satisfying. We've got to move away from the bitterness of this rivalry. It wasn't so long ago that each club's supporters could attend the other's home matches while their team was away. I never did it on a regular basis, but I did it once or twice, before the bitterness started to make it an inadvisable idea. Those old enough to remember Southern Soccer, on Southern TV, will remember that they showed something like 50 minute highlights of the previous day's game, and when Saints were out of town, Pompey's game was the one to watch. I used to watch those and I do remember wanting Pompey to win their games. OK, they were in a division or two down from us, so it was made easier, but the point was I wanted them to win, because they were from the South. Look, as I've said before, most of the time, my attitude is that other clubs exist only for the privilege of playing Saints at least once in their history. However, when I'm feeling a bit more positive about football, and recognise that other clubs can exist beyond that already high ambition, I want clubs from the South to do well; better than everywhere else, in fact. Which means that I want Saints to win against every team they play, including Pompey, but that doesn't extend to inflicting damage on their club, in the form of relegating them, because that weakens the objective. I want the South to be the centre of football.
That whole 'they lost to West Brom on purpose to relegate us' thing is bollocks. It was just coincidental. We got relegated because we were terrible for the majority of the season and because we didn't have the bottle to give an unmotivated United side a proper fight. We finished 20th remember - even if Pompey had won the game we would have gone down. Having said that, I would take great pleasure in seeing them relegated
In life I have learned there is one and only one rule and that is everyone must obey the rules except Portsmouth FC who are entitled to break any rule they see fit.
Like the one about Southampton workers breaking a Pompey strike. When I idly googled it, the only incident mentioned was Portsmouth workers breaking a Southampton dock strike.
You'll wait a long time! My experience, for what its worth, is that the reason that the North West is such a "hot bed" of football is that most people you meet have a view. It's almost impossible to go into a shop in Liverpool, Manchester or any of the Gtr Manc towns without hearing a conversation about football. Yet I got on my train on Saturday and my southern born ticket collector, obviously just being friendly, asked me the score. "2-0 to Saints" I replied. "Sorry, I don't know anything about football, who are the Saints?" (!!) But when it comes to rivalry, I agree with you. I was quite gutted when Liverpool beat Pompey in the Cup semi-final (92?). I don't get the angst. In Liverpool Reds and Blus give each other grief, but there is rarely the hatred
On the Island, few people seem that interested in football. We get a smattering of supporters for other teams as we get a lot of people retiring here, but most people who show an interest are just being polite because they know I'm a Saints fan. Annoyingly, they sometimes mistake me for a Pompey fan...I just do the crossed finger sign to ward off the evil.
