Southampton vs Portsmouth. Saints V Pompey. Scummers V Skates. However you see it and call it, it is the Derby to end all Derbies on the south coast. One of the reasons for the fervour and excitement is they don’t come round very often. This Sunday marks the first league game between the sides since 2012. This is not your every year Liverpool V Everton or CIty V Utd or Spurs V Arsenal. This is years of waiting. Years of bubbling and years of waiting.
Pompey fans will be fondly remembering Saints rocking up on their doorstep in the League cup in 2019 and roundly hammering them 4-0. 1 game in 13 years! This is mainly down to Saints being great and Portsmouth being useless. Even when Pompey stormed to the Championship the mighty Saints won the play-off final to get to the Premier League.
So 14th September 2025 is the big one. No one wants to lose this one. Transfer windows are closed and time has been given to the training ground as the International break took place. This is it. This is the culmination of years of anticipation and sadly bubbling hate.
Over the years, I have witnessed a load of great derbies and frankly some days that I wished I didn’t. Jason Dodd taking a corner and it going straight in. It did. I won’t have it as an own goal. Pahars belting a great shot. Peter Crouch knocking in the 90th minute penalty. Billy Sharp winning the game only for David Norris to flipping equalise in stoppage time. Going to Fratton and losing 4-1 and being battered on the way out and coaches smashed.
The last memory brings me to my biggest point. The passion of the game should be on the pitch. I am seeing so much on social media of planning a ruck or getting a gang ready for either side. It is football. It is so important but it is just a game. It’s a game that I want to win and we cannot lose but it is just a game.
Lets hope Sunday is memorable for the right reasons and goes down as yet another classic. We know we have two derbies this year but we don’t know when the next one will happen. Enjoy the game, get behind the team and COME ON YOU SAINTS!
