South Coast derby

The South Coast Derby, or Hampshire Derby, are terms used to describe football matches played between Portsmouth F.C. and Southampton F.C.

The two clubs are the largest on the southern coast of England, and lie only 17 miles apart. The match is currently not being played because Portsmouth are in the top League, the Premiership, and Southampton are languishing in the Championship.

Changing Fortunes

Southampton were the first of the two clubs to be formed, in 1885. Portsmouth were founded thirteen years later, in 1898.

Southampton and Portsmouth first played each other competitively in the Southern League in April 1900, with Portsmouth winning 2-0 twice in three days. The teams met regularly in the Southern League, and in the early years of the 20th century were rivals for the league title, with Southampton taking the title in 1901, 1903 and 1904 (having also been champions in three consecutive seasons from 1896-97 to 1898-99, before Portsmouth were formed) and Portsmouth taking the title in 1902 (and again in 1920).

The first of four South Coast derbies in the FA Cup took place on January 13 1906, when Southampton beat Portsmouth 5-1. For the 1920-21 season, both teams were admitted to the Football League (together with the majority of the Southern League First Division sides). The first Football League game between the two clubs was on September 11 1920, with Southampton winning 2-0. After two seasons in the Third Division, Saints were promoted as champions in 1922. Pompey joined them in the Second Division in 1924 and were promoted to the First Division in 1927. Up to this time the teams had met ten times in the Football League, with Saints winning four, Pompey three and three draws.

Portsmouth then enjoyed a much-superior league position to their neighbours until 1960, when Southampton gained promotion back to the Second Division, Portsmouth having been relegated from the First Division the previous season. From the 1960s onwards, Southampton found themselves in the ascendancy, being in a superior division nearly every season while defeating their rivals whenever the two sides met in cup clashes.

With Southampton's being in a higher division for most of the period from the 1960s through to the early 2000s, the two clubs rarely met. Events such as the death of Portsmouth goalkeeper Aaron Flahavan, a Southampton-born footballer whose brother Darryl had played for Southampton, occasionally brought the fans together. However, events of recent years have altered this markedly.

Southampton dominated the South Coast derby games in the post-war era, with 14 wins against Portsmouth's 4. Portsmouth's promotion to the Premiership in 2003 evened matters and reignited the clubs' rivalry - the first time the two teams had met in regular league competition since the 1987-88 First Division season. Southampton held the upper-hand, winning two of the three matches played between the two sides in the 2003-04 season.

The rivalry was galvanised with the appointment of Harry Redknapp as Southampton manager in December 2004, just days after he had resigned as manager of Portsmouth, and less than a month after the Saints had beaten Portsmouth at St Mary's Stadium. The following month, the Saints were drawn against and defeated their rivals in a fiery FA Cup match, with former Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch scoring the decisive penalty in the last minute of the match.

However, Portsmouth struck back in the next (and most recent) league encounter between the rivals, with Southampton losing 4-1 at Fratton Park in Redknapp's only return to the ground with the club. Southampton were subsequently relegated from the Premiership on the final day of the 2004-05 season, ending their 27 year run in the top flight of English Football.

Harry Redknapp

The acrimonious departure of Harry Redknapp from Portsmouth to Southampton brought the bitter rivalry between the two clubs to a new level. When Redknapp returned to Portsmouth in November of 2005 following Southampton's relegation, it only served to further sour relations between the two clubs, which arguably remain at an all-time low. The two club's chairmen at the time, Rupert Lowe (Southampton) and Milan Mandaric (Portsmouth), publicly criticised one another on a number of occasions, with Lowe calling for an inquest into irregular betting patterns in the run-up to Redknapp's re-appointment. Mandaric had even sent a boxed duck as a Christmas 'gift' to Lowe (as Lowe had been on a hunting trip when the "ordeal" began), but the gesture only furthered the animosity between the two.

Current Positions

As of 2007, the rivalry between the two clubs remains incredibly fierce, but any derby between the two clubs can only occur if they are drawn together in either the Football League Cup or the FA Cup, as Southampton's relegation to the Football League Championship makes any league fixture temporarily impossible.

Inter-fan rivalry

Exactly when the fierce rivalry between the supporters of the two clubs began is not entirely clear. However, until the 1970s, many fans would go and watch the other team when their side was playing away, indicating anything but hatred. Some ascribe the growing rivalry since then to the cities' diverging economic fortunes, which included the transfer to Portsmouth of cross-Channel ferry services once based in Southampton.

Nicknames

Portsmouth supporters often refer to Southampton supporters as "scum" or "scummers". This is a general term of abuse and is used by supporters of a number of clubs when referring to their rivals. It is believed to have first been used by fans of London clubs and adopted by Portsmouth fans in the 1970s. The origins of the term are unknown.

According to some Portsmouth fans, the term "scum" developed out of an acronym standing for Southampton City (or Corporation) Union Men, with the term allegedly originating from when Southampton dockyard workers supposedly crossed the picket lines in the 1930s when Portsmouth dockyard workers were on strike. However this story is unlikely, as the two cities rely on entirely different types of ports - Southampton being a merchant port and Portsmouth, a naval one. There is also no known record of any strike occurring during the mentioned time period. Rather, this seems to be a modern attempt to incorrectly describe the origins of the rivalry.

An alternative - but no more reliable - explanation lies in the dismissive attitude of the naval port towards the commercial one. Royal Navy ships are punctilious over such details as discharging effluent tanks while still well out to sea, whilst it was held to be a truism that commercial vessels observed no such niceties. The result in the commercial docks was believed to be a vile-smelling scum on the water which required the services of "scummers" to remove it and the health hazard it represented.

Southampton supporters have taken to referring to their local rivals as "Skates". This is a derisive term used to describe sailors, Portsmouth being the home of the Royal Navy.

Derby results in summary

"First class" competitions only.

Competition	Played	Results			Goals
		Saints	Pompey	Draw	Saints	Pompey
Southern League	32	15	12	5	43	43
Football League	26	12	6	8	47	33
Premier League	4	2	2	0	6	6
FA Cup	4	4	0	0	11	2
League Cup	1	1	0	0	2	0
TOTAL	67	34	20	13	109	84

All official competitions

Portsmouth - 61

Southampton - 56

Drawn - 19

Players who have played for both clubs

John Bainbridge Ian Baird Dave Beasant William Beaumont John Beresford Eyal Berkovic Tommy Bowman Arthur Charles Brown Arthur Chadwick Mick Channon Colin Clarke Eamonn Collins Andy Cook Martin Cranie

Peter Crouch Ron Davies C. B. Fry Ricardo Fuller Paul Gilchrist Jon Gittens Ivan Golac Willie Haines Trevor Hebberd Scott Hiley Barry Horne Kelly Houlker George Lawrence John Lewis

John McIlwane Jerry Mackie Alan McLoughlin Steve Middleton George Molyneux Harry Penk Nigel Quashie Matthew Robinson Bill Rochford Bobby Stokes Jhon Viáfara Malcolm Waldron John Warner

Managed both clubs

• Alan Ball
• Harry Redknapp

Played for one, managed/coached the other

• Alan Ball
• Kevin Bond
• Arthur Chadwick
• Joe Jordan
• Steve Wigley
• Harry Wood

Women's football

Both Portsmouth and Southampton have women's counterparts. Although Southampton Saints L.F.C. has the better history, with their record 9 FA Women's Cups won and their once-star player Sue Lopez having made it all the way to the English Football Hall of Fame, most of their achievements came before the creation of the actual Women's Premiership. Portsmouth L.F.C. is a relative newcomer to the women's game by contrast.

Both teams played in the Southern Championship in the 2006-07 season. Portsmouth was a strong contender for promotion (it finished 3rd), while Southampton was relegated to the Regional Combinations. Interestingly, the current Portsmouth manager, Vanessa Raynbird, played in and later managed Southampton as well.

External links

• "Chimes could be a-changing", BBC Sport article on the rivalry between Southampton and Portsmouth

References

• Dave Juson & others (2004). Saints v Pompey - A history of unrelenting rivalry. Hagiology. ISBN 0-9534474-5-6.

• Colin Farmery (2004). Seventeen Miles From Paradise - Saints v Pompey: Passion, Pride and Prejudice. Desert Island Books. ISBN 1-874287-89-9.

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