The Biggest Game That's Never Played

Imagine if Manchester United and Liverpool had only ever played each other 35 times. Or if the Yankees and the Red Sox had met on just seven occasions since 1988. Supporters of some teams don't get to meet their fiercest rivals every year, and when Portsmouth and Southampton clash on Saturday lunchtime for the first time in almost five years fans will witness a real collector's item: the South Coast Derby.

The FA Cup Fifth Round tie will be the thirty-sixth time the two clubs have met since they were admitted to the Football League in 1920. Vastly differing fortunes during the following 90 years conspired to make the fixture one of the rarest derbies in English football. Even Bradford City and the now non-League Bradford Park Avenue managed 56 league and cup meetings.

The reason behind this dearth of derbies was Pompey's plight from the mid-seventies onwards, which reached its nadir with relegation to the old Fourth Division in 1978. From this period onwards Southampton were in the ascendency, winning the Cup in 1976 and beginning an unbroken 27-year top-flight stint in 1978.

Between 1976 and 2003, the "Skates" and the "Scummers" met just twice in the league - during Pompey's short-lived return to the old Division One for the 1986/87 season. A two-all August draw at Fratton Park was followed by a rare Blues win at the Dell, 2-0.

A 3-0 1996 Cup victory for Saints was all that transpired between the two sides until Portsmouth were promoted, under Harry Redknapp, to what was by now the Premiership in 2003. Relations between both sets of fans had been tense, often violent, since the 1970s, but the 21st Century would see animosity between the clubs reach up to the boardroom.

Saints won their home league game in the 2003/04 season, as well as a League Cup tie at the new St. Mary's stadium, but a Yakubu goal in March 2004 was enough to secure Pompey a 1-0 derby triumph to start a run that would eventually keep them up.

This was merely the calm before the storm, however. Another St. Mary's win for Southampton started the 2004-05 campaign, but Redknapp's relationship with Blues chairman Milan Mandaric was strained, and the former West Ham boss quit the club. Incredibly, he almost immediately was appointed manager at the now struggling club "down the road", leaving Pompey fans feeling betrayed.

Mandaric fell out with Saints owner Rupert Lowe, and relations deteriorated to the extent that the Serbian sent a boxed duck to his hunting, shooting, fishing counterpart as a barbed Christmas present.

After fate threw the clubs together for a January FA Cup match at St. Mary's, controversially won by the home side after a dubious penalty, two sides facing the drop met at Fratton Park in the warmth of late April for a must-win game. Redknapp was back and Pompey fans bayed for blood. They got it. Saints were demolished 4-1 and Redknapp squirmed on the bench throughout. A month later Southampton were relegated, and the two clubs went back to their usual life in separate divisions.

It's now five years later, and so much has happened in the meantime. Redknapp failed to adjust to life in what was now the Championship, left Saints and came back to Fratton to save Pompey from relegation once more. Gradually being re-accepted, he presided over an era of over-spending to success under new owner Sacha Gaydamak. Fans saw a team stuffed with quality win the FA Cup at Wembley in 2008, but now face the very real prospect of the club ceasing to exist after nearly two years of turmoil, fire-sales and incompetent leadership. Redknapp hot-footed it to Spurs as soon as he realised he wasn't going to be able to do what he liked with the club's cheque book any longer.

Saints suffered all that a little earlier. After almost escaping back to the Premiership at the second attempt, administration and relegation in 2009 was the culmination of two seasons of debt and derision. Now under the ownership of Markus Liebherr, their future seems bright. They're going to Wembley after reaching the final of the JP Trophy, and could still make the play-offs despite starting the 09-10 season with a ten-point deduction.

From a personal point of view, I've got mixed feelings going into this derby. On the one hand, I'm more concerned about the survival of the club I love than beating our biggest rivals. On the other, a victory over Southampton would go a hell of a long way to numbing the pain of what has been a truly depressing nine months to be a Portsmouth supporter, especially dragging oneself out of bed on a Saturday morning thousands of miles away. But it'll mean nothing if the club folds in a week.

Also, I don't really know any of the Saints players. I couldn't point out Rickie Lambert or Papa Waigo from a crowd of people. It's not like seven years ago when we'd hate the likes of Jason Dodd or the defecting Nigel Quashie.

But we have to win to avoid the shame of losing to a side two divisions below us. We have to get our first ever FA Cup win over that horrible lot down the M27. Pompey need to have the bragging rights when we go into our derby in the Championship during the 2011/12 season (if Mrs. Registrar Derrett sees sense, anyway).