Bit surprising to see the East Anglian Derby getting some recognition, normally it’s just people insisting that it isn’t a derby due to distance. For people with no knowledge of the area it’s easier to understand if you think of it as Suffolk vs Norfolk.
I imagine in terms of nastiness Pompey & Saints is going to be the spiciest, the two Sheffield clubs for a one city derby, and the Norwich Ipswich one, as friendly as it ever appears, are the only ones that pop out. Not sure how the London clubs view eachother, none of them jump to mind as being big rivals. Cov and Albion are obviously our two closest, though neither are really rivals, Cov a little bit more so after their lack of humility when we saved their club…
Us against Portsmouth is now seen as a Derby between both sets of fans, always goes off outside Fratton station. Also a thing with Southampton fans too which is why there's always a police escort back to the station.
There is no derby with Portsmouth ffs. There was a bit of needle with Southampton during a few games 15+ years back, the year we were both relegated from the Championship at St Mary’s in particular was quite eventful but again, it’s not a derby is it. Millwall most definitely is a derby, just a shame we absolutely never beat them.
Our derby is certainly a lot more nuanced than distance. You do get people wondering how it works if people aren't constantly interacting but there's more than enough to keep it going. Every medium sized work place I've been at in Norwich has had the odd town fan. I'd say it's better than a lot of inter city derbies where friend groups are often very mixed when it comes to football allegiances. The whole 'we're best mates but we 'ate eachother on derby day' schtick you get with a lot of derbies is just cringe. Thought experiment - You're a Town fan outnumbered in the the Norwich branch of an office 8-1. You've not won a derby since the pandemic (2009 Swine Flu pandemic, not Corona). Just imagine the level of annoying, niggly banter you've had to deal with in that time (like people bringing up the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic as a marker for their last victory). It's safe to say you're really anticipating that next derby and it probably means a quite a lot. Obviously early days yet but next season's East Anglian derbies have potential to be blockbuster. For the first time in a long while Ipswich will be outright favourites. Then there's the Town interest in the Norwich dugout (although I'm sure it'll get reiterated today that Manning isn't an Ipswich fan). Granted I doubt it'll top absolute cinema that was Lambert's crash out and red card followed by Farke's cheeky wink at the Sky camera from a few years ago.
The chants of ‘Liam Manning is a Blue’ every time we score should be fun. Seriously you lot could win two games all season and it would be those two. Have to wait and see what state we’re both in by then.
I have zero Villa mates or acquaintances. I actively make sure I don't knowingly associate myself with any of them as I know what somebody is likely to be like as a person if they support that lot.
We don't really have any rivals this year. We had Luton last year and we don't like each other. Got London derbies but they aren't hatred or anything. Normally a bit of agg with Millwall but nothing spectacular. As a neutral, the Southampton - Portsmouth one and Norwich - Ipswich are the main ones I would watch.
Southampton v Portsmouth is the one I'm looking forward to. They haven't played each other for years and Portsmouth have been through the absolute mill since they last met so it should be spicy. Guaranteed huge amount of crowd trouble too.
Wasn't there an EFL trophy game back in 2018 with your u21s or u23s and a load of Stoke fans decided to turn up, so the locals of Burslem all turned up and it turned into a feisty affair, off the pitch at least.
People expecting any bother at ours will be let down. Hants old bill will make it a bubble and it’ll be played at 12 on a Sunday. If they let us do trains it’d be a different story but I’d be amazed if that happened. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It was the Football League Trophy. As we'd recently been a Premier League team we still had to enter an U21 team into the competition. We drew Vale and it was the first time we'd met them in any capacity for years. They played their full first team and thrashed our kids 4-0 I think, which the Vale fans obviously loved. But despite the fact that it was a joke match with a Stoke kids team against a full strength adult League One team, we still filled their away end and had 5 or 6,000 fans there. Unfortunately a significant number of them wanted to cause trouble and basically trash the place so the away end toilets got completely trashed with sinks thrown out of the windows and whole toilet bowls ripped out and smashed up etc. And obviously fighting outside from both fans. Would have been the same if it had been played at our ground, they'd have brought thousands up and trashed our away end. We paid Vale for the damage. Would be interesting what would have happened had it been the other way round because I doubt they'd have been able to afford to pay us . Whenever we eventually meet in a proper match it'll go off big time, there's no doubt about it. And they can't really bubble it with it being a same city derby, everyone will make their own way with no coaches and even if they try to make it official coach only for the away fans, there's nothing stopping thousands turning up outside in the streets. We were 2 points away from this happening next season. Let's never let it get that close again . If we've got to play the great unwashed, at least make them earn it and have to get promotion up to our level.
I think the crowd was 8k with roughly 4k each. Vale fans defo turned up in numbers. I might be remembering it wrong, but I'm sure Stoke fans spread word across messageboards and social media etc, to takeover the ground for a laugh/humiliation of Vale. Vale fans picked up on it and pulled in a strong crowd (ok I know it was roughly 50/50, but all things considered it was a good effort from them). Defo looked to be a good atmosphere from the clips I have seen since. May have not meant much to Stoke who no doubt laughed about it all and Vale's victory against their reserves afterwards, but as a Bury fan, I can safely say we'd have been the same had we drawn or were to draw Bolton in similar circumstances.
