[Albion] If not Palace, then who?

[Bry Nylon]

Assume, just for a moment, that all that stuff in 1977-8 that sparked the ill-feeling and rivalry over subsequent years had never happened - who would be our rivals now, if anyone?

I guess our relative geographic isolation (in football terms) means we would have looked towards Portsmouth perhaps? Or maybe Southampton? But to be fair, their prime rivalry is with each other, not us.

I know Palace like to point to a rivalry with West Ham but they are mainly preoccupied with Millwall or Spurs. Which leaves Palace with Charlton. And it's impossible to have a proper rivarly with Charlton because as a set of fans they are just so decent. So maybe us and Palace were meant to be?

But - if not Palace, then who?

 

[AmexRuislip]

Crawley, still the M23 derby

 

[Sheebo]

Gillingham? Some didn’t like us ‘squatting’..

 

[Hamilton]

Shoreham. Twats!

 

[Mackenzie]

Reading

 

[Insel affe]

Gillingham? Some didn’t like us ‘squatting’..

Squatting!!

We paid them handsomely for the privilege of using that shitehole...

Squatting it was not, slumming it, and getting treated like shit by the landlord more like...

We’ve all been there.

 

[portlock seagull]

Reading. Don’t have anyone else. Similar in size, history, nearish and just something immensely dislikable about them. Think it’s all the time we had nothing, they kept nicking people like Sidwell and Coppell and felt we could be bigger and better than them if only we had a stadium. So yes, green eyed envy is my rationale + a superiority complex! Totally ridiculous I know but in the noughties it just felt personal. Plus anyone who released that dreadful shameful ‘They call us the Royals’ as their match day anthem deserves lasting contempt.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

One of the French clubs

 

[Guinness Boy]

Our advantage in having a huge catchment area and being a county team in a relatively well to do county is that we should attract fans from far and wide.
Our disadvantage is that we're not as "real" as the clubs in London, Manchester, Lancashire, West Midlands etc who are on each other's doorsteps. Luckily, Palace aren't a London team either, but rather Surrey Nigels. They need us and we need them.

Without them it's Pompey for me. Utter scumbags and always really enjoyed beating them. Vincente beating them on his own made up for a couple of trips to Fratton back in the day.

The funny thing, though, is that in terms of "banter", now we are Premier League, the rivalries that West Brom and Wolves or Sunderland and Newcastle would have had on building sites or in factories are now repeated in London commuter offices full of fans of everyone from Cambridge or Watford to Spurs, Arsenal or West Ham right through to us. I have a new job with a London base when things are "back to normal" and will be working with two Arsenal fans, a Spurs fan, a Man U fan and a middle class ex banker who loves rugger.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Shoreham. Twats!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

What is the nearest club to us geographically. Everyone seems so far away

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Can't be Portsmouth or Southampton as they loathe each other already.

Reading hated Oxford, and too far away.

London clubs have their own derbies.

Bournemouth or Gillingham? A bit dull if so.

 

[happypig]

What is the nearest club to us geographically. Everyone seems so far away

Lewes ?

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Crawley, still the M23 derby

The M23 still doesn't to Brighton, no matter how many times it's written. We must stick to the A roads

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Remember when it was Orient?

/Shudder

 

[Seasidesage]

Chesterfield hate us apparently. That'll do.

 

[AmexRuislip]

The M23 still doesn't to Brighton, no matter how many times it's written. We must stick to the A roads

OK for the pedants on here, the slightly off centre Satnav derby

 

[Questions]

Assume, just for a moment, that all that stuff in 1977-8 that sparked the ill-feeling and rivalry over subsequent years had never happened - who would be our rivals now, if anyone?

I guess our relative geographic isolation (in football terms) means we would have looked towards Portsmouth perhaps? Or maybe Southampton? But to be fair, their prime rivalry is with each other, not us.

I know Palace like to point to a rivalry with West Ham but they are mainly preoccupied with Millwall or Spurs. Which leaves Palace with Charlton. And it's impossible to have a proper rivarly with Charlton because as a set of fans they are just so decent. So maybe us and Palace were meant to be?

But - if not Palace, then who?

Charlton fans werent ‘just so decent’ in the early 70’s....... trust me. Howell scored a hatrick there in a 4-0:for us about that time.... (Ronnie or Graham ?

 

[Questions]

Assume, just for a moment, that all that stuff in 1977-8 that sparked the ill-feeling and rivalry over subsequent years had never happened - who would be our rivals now, if anyone?

I guess our relative geographic isolation (in football terms) means we would have looked towards Portsmouth perhaps? Or maybe Southampton? But to be fair, their prime rivalry is with each other, not us.

I know Palace like to point to a rivalry with West Ham but they are mainly preoccupied with Millwall or Spurs. Which leaves Palace with Charlton. And it's impossible to have a proper rivarly with Charlton because as a set of fans they are just so decent. So maybe us and Palace were meant to be?

But - if not Palace, then who?

It was Bournemouth and Luton when I was
a kid.

 

[GT49er]

Reading

My vague childhood memories, going back to the fifties here, have an echo of Reading being out rivals back then.