The skates loved us then its true

https://bobbystokes.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/the-day-portsmouth-celebrated-a-southampton-goal/

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So back then, people could get past hating for hating’s sake? Very good. Would never happen now, his parents would get battered if they put a party on, sadly.

Good find that, it certainly buries some of the portsmyths we have to suffer today - the bitter rivalry was clearly not that bitter back in the day.

For me it was the abuse of the minutes’ silence for Ted Bates that changed everything.

Before that there was healthy rivalry with banter.

I took the abuse of a dead man in the name of football as a declaration of war.

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My old man used to split his time at The Dell and at Fratton Park, back in the day. One week supporting the mighty Saints and when they were away from home, visiting that shithole on Pikey Island. I think he favoured Portsmouth as he tried to get me to support them when I was a young lad. I vaguely remember he took me to a few games back in the mid to late 70’s (i think) when they were up for a promotion. I think they had to get a couple of wins from 6 games, 3 home and 3 away. He took me to the home games and the Skates fucked up every one and missed out on going up. Ha! I was only young at the time, but I remember the misery of the fans leaving Fratton Park and thought “fuck this, i’m going to follow the Saints instead”. I think he still prefers the skates to this day, the daft old cunt.

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May 1 1976, on our return from Wembley, me and a few mates, having celebrated for a few glorious hours in Southampton, made the ludicrous decision to attempt to get back to the Isle of Wight. The last ferry had already departed from Southampton, so the only alternative was via Portsmouth. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Portsmouth, the last ferry from there to the Island had also left. Worse than that, we had been identified by a large group of Portsmouth supporters, who followed us to the empty terminal. I’ll not go into details of what happened next; suffice it to say, not one of them appeared to be a fan of Bobby Stokes. :lou_sad:

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Originally posted by @Numptyboi

I vaguely remember he took me to a few games back in the mid to late 70’s (i think) when they were up for a promotion. I think they had to get a couple of wins from 6 games, 3 home and 3 away. He took me to the home games and the Skates fucked up every one and missed out on going up. Ha!

This is looking like an increasingly likely scenario this season. Be a crying shame if history repeated itself, eh…

It would be beautiful! So near, yet so far…