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[Albion] If not Palace, then who?



Bry Nylon

Bry Nylon

Test your smoke alarm
Helpful Moderator
Jul 21, 2003
19,848
Playing snooker
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?
 






Sheebo

Sheebo

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2003
29,287
Gillingham? Some didn’t like us ‘squatting’..
 










portlock seagull

portlock seagull

Why? Why us?
Jul 28, 2003
17,075
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.
 






Guinness Boy

Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
34,170
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
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.
 




Cheshire Cat

Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
Nov 4, 2006
11,444
Sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off...
What is the nearest club to us geographically. Everyone seems so far away
 




Cheshire Cat

Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
Nov 4, 2006
11,444
Sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off...
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.
 














Questions

Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,889
Worthing
Bry Nylon said:
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?
Click to expand...

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

Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
24,889
Worthing
Bry Nylon said:
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?
Click to expand...

It was Bournemouth and Luton when I was
a kid.
 




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