The South Coast derby features the clubs Portsmouth and Southampton. The distance between the clubs is only 19.7 miles between the home of premier league outfit Southampton St Mary’s stadium, and League one Portsmouth’s Fratton Park.
Portsmouth supporters often refer to Southampton supporters as scum or scummers. There are a number of competing theories as to origin and supporters of many clubs refer to their rivals as scum, although Portsmouth fans more commonly use the term the scummers. According to Portsmouth fans the term scum was 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. Southampton supporters have taken to referring to their local rivals as Skates. This is an alternative to matelot to describe naval sailors. Thus, because Portsmouth being the home of the Royal Navy. This term is in fact originally a dismissive one for sailors, which some Southampton fans have adopted. It was made popular as an abusive term towards Portsmouth fans after a Southampton fans asked readers to help search for the term most likely to cause offence to them.
Southampton were originally formed in 1885 as St. Mary’s Young Men’s Association F.C. before adopting the name Southampton St. Mary’s when the club joined the Southern League in 1894. After they won the Southern League title in 1896-97, the club became a limited company and changed their name to Southampton F.C. Portsmouth was founded in April 1898 and joined the Southern League in 1899.
The first match between the two clubs came in a friendly at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park ground on 6th September 1899. Portsmouth recorded a 2-0 victory. Competitively on the other hand, Southampton and Portsmouth first played each other 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. Southampton won the title in 1901, 1903 and 1904 with Portsmouth winning the title in 1902. The first Football League game between the two clubs was on September 11th 1920, with Southampton winning 2-0. After two seasons in the Third Division, Southampton were promoted as champions in 1922. Portsmouth joined them in the Second Division in 1924 and were promoted to the First Division in 1927.
From around the early 1930’s until the late 1950’s. Portsmouth were the more superior outfit, winning the FA Cup in 1939, and back to back league titles in the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons. In 1960, Portsmouth were relegated from the first division, whilst Southampton gained promotion to the second division. Southampton have since then, nearly always been in the higher divisions and being the more dominant side, this has meant that the teams haven’t met as much over the years as the fans supposedly would have liked.
Southampton dominated the South Coast derby games in the post-war era, with 14 wins against Portsmouth’s 4. Portsmouth’s promotion to the Premier League in 2003 evened matters and reignited the clubs’ rivalry. This would be the first time the two teams had met in league competition since the 1987-88 First Division season. Southampton won 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 rivalry was at boiling point, especially when in the following month, Southampton were drawn against Portsmouth in the FA Cup, a fiery encounter which Southampton won, 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 Harry 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.
When Harry Redknapp returned to Portsmouth in November 2005 following Southampton’s relegation, it only served to further sour relations between the two clubs, especially after Portsmouth’s 2008 FA Cup win. Southampton’s most recent trophy success was the Football league trophy in the 2009-10 season. Although they were recently runners up to Manchester United in the league cup, losing 3-2 in the final.
Following Portsmouth’s FA Cup win in 2008, this would be the start of a downward spiral for the club. They were and still are the only Premier League club to enter administration, they were relegated three times in four seasons at the start of the 2010’s, twice going into administration. But the club was saved by its fans with community ownership helping to stabilise sufficiently to attract investment from Michael Eisner, the former Disney chief. Whereas Southampton since their Football League Trophy win in 2009-10 have made positive strives to success. 2011 saw them gain promotion to the Championship after finishing 2nd in League One, with the next season Southampton finishing 2nd in the Championship, meaning the club achieved back to back promotions to reach the Premier League. In the 2014-15 season the club finished 7th in the Premier League which meant they qualified for the play off round in the Europa League. The 2015-16 season they bettered their position and finished 6th which meant they qualified for the group stage of the Europa League.
The most recent meeting between the two teams, was in September 2019 at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park in the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup, formally known as the league cup. Southampton ran away 4-0 winners in the biggest victory to date in the South Coast derby. The attendance of the match was 18,707, which nearly maxed out the capacity of Fratton park of 20,620.
Written by Harry Compton Business and Media UCFB Student
Football Club Rivalries 