Out of every derby Ive been too over the years, United/City, United/Liverpool, United/Arsenal (in fergie years), United/Chelsea, Brighton/Pompey/Southampton/Bournemouth went to Arsenal/Spurs in the 00's... Brighton/Palace is by far the most hostile and violent derby Ive been too... Which is mad considering the distance between the too...
Pompey away was really bad in the championship too, we had to get a police escort to the train station and walk these cages from the away end to prevent fighting out the stadium... bizarrely Ive never been to Palace away even though its a short journey but I dont fancy being kept in a stadium for 30mins after kick off, as whichever team is away are kept in the stadium for 30mins after the final whistle and then police escorted to the station etc
I remember one weekend in the championship Palace smashed up the long main road from Brighton train station all the way down to the City centre, every shop window and car was done in, its just mental... I got there on the Friday so thankfully missed the mayhem on Saturday... There are fights everywhere you look, its insane like a scene from an apocalyptic movie...
I think rivalries are generally more intense with teams from the lower leagues, as its mainly locals not general EPL fans, players from the towns and lower leagues = less policing and media scrutiny too as the last think the EPL want is violence ruining their 'product'...
The media tend to get the rivalry wrong, theres a decent video about it here... It also involves alot of how bad British hooliganism was in the 60s/70s too...
This quite a good watch even tho its 5 years old...
Last edited:
