Rivalries | PASOTI
  • Welcome to PASOTI. Sponsored by Lang & Potter

Rivalries

Mar 14, 2009
5,148
277
I thought today was a decent atmosphere once the game caught to life second half.

When they started to sing “Your f***** s***” after they scored l thought to myself you might live to regret that. And sure enough when Carey hit that beautiful free kick Argyle fans sang it back to them.

It was all rather simplistic banter but it seems passions cant help run high between the two sets of fans. Unfortunately, banter to some means they lose control and it’s abit sad to see the baiting for a fight.

Yet the atmosphere created is because of this fierce rivalry between the two “Dockyard” cities. It makes me wonder if Southampton had been in the lower leagues and we played them as many times in recent years as we have Portsmouth, would there be as fierce a rivalry? Or was it just because of the high intensity games we had against them when both teams were going for promotion?

Apart from your “derby” games (and as I go as far as Bristol because if the lack of south west league football clubs), do Argyle have any other rivalries as passionate as say the one today due to intensity of previous matches.

Burnley in the 90’s would of been one given the set of circumstances we played them under. However, it’s been so long now l think that rivalry would of been and gone given both clubs achievements since 2000.

This is not so much, who do you hate as a club, but more can you think of another rivalry between Argyle and another club which you feel passionate about due to how certain matches played out between the two sides.

For example, Wycombe. Not many like Ainsworth or his style. Yet more so the rivalry you could say has been built by those two playoff games in two years (under Sheridan and Adams). One year they knocked us out in the semi final. Then obviously the final defeat followed. (Sorry as corrected that was Wimbledon..brain meltdown) This year it feels like the two games against them have been intense.

Are there others you can think of?
 
Jul 14, 2008
764
20
I suppose our only genuine ‘local derby’s’ are against Exeter and Torquay even though they are both too small to really have a proper rivalry with. There are four teams where there’s a bit of extra spice even if they aren’t proper derby’s: Bristol Rovers, Bristol City, Portsmouth and Cardiff. Personally Bristol City are the team I enjoy beating most.
 

IJN

Site Owner
Nov 29, 2012
9,165
22,675
Those of us of a certain age, can't stand Pompey for obvious reasons.

We've little 'history' with Southampton.
 
Jul 14, 2008
764
20
Interestingly according to GoS we have played Southampton 106 times, the same as Exeter and once more than Portsmouth. Agree there is no rivalry there though
 
Oct 3, 2003
3,009
17
Dundee
Was Wimbledon in Adams' Wembley horror, not Wycombe. But Wycombe don't like us, for sure; probably more so than Luton didn't like us.
 
R

Rob_of_the_Greens

Guest
I think the most similar, for one season, was Luton. That was Kinnear-driven, because two years later when we had a similar battle for the title with QPR, there was precious little edge. Actually, I have very fond memories of QPR fans being a class act when we won to clinch the championship. I still feel that when we play Luton it means a little more than playing, say, Peterborough or Blackpool.

While I can see that the Dockyard history with Portsmouth plays in for (dare I say it) older fans, I think the current bite between the two teams would still exist without it.

I find it very hard to dislike Exeter, for example, purely because they are relatively close to us. I like beating them more than most, because I want us to be top dog in Devon, and I want bragging rights over City fans I know. But if we won a division I wouldn't really mind them coming second.

I like the Portsmouth stuff better because it seems to be based off a good old-fashioned sporting rivalry. Until this season, we basically had three straight years of "we're better than you" claims, and finishing next to each other in the league. We were a big team in League Two, but they were a bit bigger. We had the play-off win, they snuck the title. Moments like the Wylde comeback game add to it. Cook and Adams disliked each other (Wottsy wasn't far behind). There was the Hartley/Roberts yard dog thing.

I think all that would have happened if you retained the same personnel but placed Portsmouth in, arbitrarily, Oxfordshire, far from the coast.

I think of it a little bit like the Ashes. I like Australia, and the people, but man I want to beat them so much more than any other cricket team.
 

IJN

Site Owner
Nov 29, 2012
9,165
22,675
By the way I was told few weeks ago that Joe Kinnear has advanced dementia. :cry:
 
Jan 20, 2004
1,154
364
That is sad to hear. I know he slagged us off during that epic title race, but his comments were tongue in cheek and he was generally sharp witted.

I'd consider Bristol City then possibly Rovers and Pompey as oir main rivals. It only emphasises how low we have sunk when we consider Exeter as a threat, we shouldn't be in the same division as them.
 
Jun 27, 2006
96
0
Plymouth
During the ''noughties'' and mainly during the years in the Championship, the games against Cardiff City and Bristol City were good encounters in what I would call rivalries. Especially that three goal comeback at home park against Cardiff which I'll always remember.
 
When I moved here in 1983 I was surprised to experience the lack of any apparent rivalry between ourselves and Exeter. It took a while to realise how long the two sides had played in different divisions, and Devonians (at that time anyway) I worked with didn’t regard 30 miles down the road as local.

In my South East years I experienced Pompey/Southampton, Ipswich/Norwich, Luton/Watford and Arsenal/Tottenham derbies, and believe me most Argyle supporters would be staggered at the intensity, where for many the result is more important than anything else that season, including final league placing.
 
Jan 4, 2005
8,731
969
NEWQUAY
mervyn":3sa1m5s7 said:
When I moved here in 1983 I was surprised to experience the lack of any apparent rivalry between ourselves and Exeter. It took a while to realise how long the two sides had played in different divisions, and Devonians (at that time anyway) I worked with didn’t regard 30 miles down the road as local.

In my South East years I experienced Pompey/Southampton, Ipswich/Norwich, Luton/Watford and Arsenal/Tottenham derbies, and believe me most Argyle supporters would be staggered at the intensity, where for many the result is more important than anything else that season, including final league placing.

When I worked in London, I found quite strong rivalry between Crystal Palace and Charlton, when they were in the same League. Unfortunately Charlton have drifted down the Leagues of recent years.
 
Oct 14, 2015
2,785
1,400
When I lived in Watford their games against Luton were pretty ferocious...don’t play each other anymore which pleases the local Constabulary
 
Sep 16, 2009
447
34
Bournemouth
Pompey is quite a good rivalry now due to us playing them a number of years running and the play off match we had. Also the infamous 1983 "battle of home park" still resonates with anyone over the age of about 45. I like to think the two clubs have the most passionate fan bases on the south coast (I dont consider saints and Brighton fans to be as passionate as for me Portsmouth and Plymouth are two northern style working class cities, southampton and Brighton more middle class).

I also really find it hard to like Burnley due to them beating us in the play offs in 1994 and relegating us four years later and their fans invading the pitch and attacking the Argyle contingent that day, which showed their lack of class.

Wycombe I cant stand. They just always seem to be a thorn in our side. Im from Bournemouth and its always surprised me there was next to no rivalry with Argyle, considering relative locality and the two sides playing almost every year in the 80s and 90s.
 

Cobi Budge

Auction Winner 👨‍⚖️
Apr 8, 2011
13,427
12,029
27
Plymouth
I'm just about old enough to remember Cardiff's Ninian Park, went a few times with Argyle (a 2 1 win, a 1 0 loss and a 2 2 draw), the definition of an old school stadium and was always a good atmosphere when we went there.
 
Mar 23, 2008
7,333
2,512
For me it's Pompus, yet to meet a level headed fan. A very oddly arrogant bunch and fail to see why.