"As FourFourTwo strolls up the peninsula from the docks to the stadium, Southampton is quiet in that way cities can only ever be on Sunday mornings. This is no time for a football match but that's the whole point. This meeting of maritime rivals is a bubble match. Portsmouth supporters will be bussed in from three alighting points just along the coast whether they want to be or not."
"They drew that day but Portsmouth were relegated from the Championship, Southampton promoted to the Premier League to complete a whiplash-inducing reversal of fortunes. In the space of three seasons, the rivals swapped places two divisions apart. Worse was to come for Pompey. It's important for football folk to acknowledge that most people are just getting on with their lives around us, but within the broad context of football and its echoes this is a rivalry between cities as much as clubs."
Southampton presents a subdued Sunday-morning scene before a heavily controlled derby against Portsmouth. The fixture is run as a bubble match with Pompey supporters bussed in from three coastal points and a large police operation including horses and a drone. Authorities mobilise early despite threatened heavy rain. The clubs last met in a league match at St Mary's in April 2012 when that game was drawn, but Portsmouth were relegated while Southampton gained promotion, producing a sharp reversal of fortunes. The rivalry operates as a contest between neighbouring cities separated by only 20 miles but marked by entrenched enmity and distinct identities.
Read at www.fourfourtwo.com
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