My first venture to a professional ground was to Fratton Park in the late 1950s when England international, Jimmy Dickinson, was captain, a formidable centre-half (those were the days of the 1-2-3-5 line up). My purpose for visiting Pompey was to see Stanley Matthews play. He was my hero and at the young age of single figures, I wanted to see the maestro in the flesh, but he rarely travelled south of London for any matches. I never saw him play, though I did meet him twice later.
Portsmouth FC, from Hampshire, was my "local" side, founded in 1898. As a Sussex lad, Brighton and Hove Albion FC was nearer to my village, but there was no direct train link. A number 22 Southdown bus might have got me somewhere near the Goldstone Ground, but I was taken to Portsmouth on the train from home town Pulborough by local lads and we passed by Fratton, alighting the train there in the shadow of the floodlights.
Pompey are known locally as the Skates, a derisive term for "matelots" or the Royal Naval sailors.
Southampton FC, founded in 1885, was in another "country" as far as I was concerned, so I had no opportunity to venture to The Dell, until adulthood. I took my son to see Liverpool play there. The Saints are known by their neighbours, as the Scum(Southampton City Union Members), the dock workers who crossed picket lines in times of union issues.
The two ports dealt with very different "cargo"!
Watching the Band of the Royal Marines march around the Fratton Park pitch in the 1950s, entertaining the crowd, was enough for me and the records show that Pompey and the Saints never played each other between 1927 and 1960, so I wouldn't have got to see them lock horns in my childhood.
The first time the two came together in a Solent Derby, only 19 miles apart, was on April 14th 1900 at Fratton Park and the home team won 2-0. They met again in the return game two days later; same result.
There was an FA Cup tie between the two in January 1906, Southampton winning 5-1.
The two clubs played in the Southern League (which was not the Football League) until 1920 when they found themselves in the newly formed Football League Third Division South; Portsmouth winning both games 2-0.
Between 1924 and 1976 there were matches in Division 2. In a short burst from 1987 through till 1988 there were League One matches and a short venture into the Premier League in 2003-5. In 2011-12 they met in the League Championship.
The only other League Cup meeting was on 2nd December 2003 when Southampton won 2-0.
They have met in the FA Cup 5 times.
Overall Pompey have won 21, Drawn 15 with the Saints and lost 34.
Scoring 113 for and conceding 91 goals.
Still this matters little in a full blooded cup tie.
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