Rivals in this league

[BRFC_Gas]

Bristol City and that's it. We haven't played each other in the league for an eternity but I still remember the old days when they acted like animals when we played each other.
I have a personal dislike of Plymouth, Notts County and Yeovil.
Swindon, Exeter and Cardiff, FGR & Cheltenham and pretty close but meh to them.

 

[saddler78]

I’d seen a few quote tweets to that effect or at the very least “so are we you twat” among other things. Gone down well then I take it

I actually think if he had any real issue it’s with Pomlett and maybe Dutton rather than Walsall in general.

definitely Pomlett mate the fans never really got on his back here think they fell out big time when he left

 

[saddler78]

definitely Pomlett mate the fans never really got on his back here think they fell out big time when he left

 

[Trapdoor]

It's been a city since 1928 has it not?

They don't have a cathedral. Or an airport. Or a motorway. Or a functioning hospital. In fact the only thing they do have is a derelict dockyard and some ho's.
They can be considered a "unitary authority" at best and that's just because the rest of the county doesn't want to take responsibility for it.

 

[AdamStag]

100% our crap form the cause. We obviously went up anyway, but some fans still dislike Notts

A link in the 2 stories given Flitcroft was No.2 at the time.

flitcroft is a choker

 

[shoddycollins]

It's been a city since 1928 has it not?

Think he's just trolling Plymouth.

 

[Sydney Posse]

Ye

For those of a certain age, Helen Chamberlain definitely built up the Torquay/Exeter thing as being THE Devon rivalry. I'm sure at one point (to be fair I think this was a spell during which Plymouth were in the second flight and the other two in the basement) she said neither Exeter nor Torquay fans care about Plymouth.

Maybe though she was being tongue in cheek and I was just too young to get the nuance of it, but either way until relatively recently, when Exeter and Plymouth have ended up in the same division, I thought Torquay were considered the main rivals by Exeter.

Yeah as a Torquay fan she saw it that way, but trust me, I’ve been a City fan since the late 70’s, and Plymouth has always been the big one. The Torquay game is also pretty big but it doesn’t have anywhere near the level of edge for most City fans

 

[denzel ecfc]

Nowt for us. Nice to have another London club for once, but our traditional rivals (West Ham, Brentford, Southend) are all elsewhere. Sure the club will try and make a thing about ‘the A12 derby’ with Colchester but no-one gives a shit.

LOL its like calling our game with Mansfield the A38 Derby

 

[Sydney Posse]

The whole Devon triangle thing is fascinating to an outsider. As the only three clubs in the area the 3-way rivalry should be pretty strong. I understand that there is a human impulse to claim the larger of your two neighbours as your rival unless that would be objectively ridiculous (neither ourselves or Darlington would claim Middlesbrough as a rival). So Exeter might claim Plymouth as the bigger deal, and Plymouth might just about reciprocate. But it's not as if Torquay are some upstart minnow. From a 300+ mile viewpoint, Exeter and Torquay are very much of a pair to me. We've played Torquay 83 times in league games, and Exeter 82 times. But we've only had 28 league meetings with Plymouth, who have generally been a fair bit better than the other two, and a fair bit better than us.

As the two geographically closest clubs, and comfortably the most regular fixture, with the closest head-to-head, Torquay vs Exeter should be the biggest rivalry. Yet it clearly isn't, I understand that. Is there some long lost incident that galvanised the bad feeling between Plymouth and Exeter?

I think it’s a combination of things and very much depends on age group as well. From watching from the late 70’s I’d say the key things are 1) Exeter is where Devon County Council is based and there is a perception that big decisions favour Exeter over Plymouth (which is 2.5 times the size). I personally think this is bollocks. 2) Exeter especially these days is much more affluent than Plymouth and that grates with some. 3) There has been a lot of violence at the fixtures especially in the last century, which there hasn’t been with Torquay. 4) For Exeter fans, getting one over on the “bigger” club is also sweeter. Seems to be passed done from generation to generation for Exeter fans as well. 5) finally, the local media have had presenters who are clearly biased towards Plymouth which massively pisses Exeter fans off. There was a guy on local television who presented sports news in the 80’s called Dick Woodacre who actually used to smile when reading out if Exeter had lost !!, he was a big Plymouth fan.
Mix all that lot together and you end up with something much bigger than any rivalry with Torquay

 

[Casey]

It gets lonely sometimes. No real rivalries since the 1990s when Dover imploded but our big rivals were Hastings (Town and United ...they morphed).

Nice to see Sutton casting eyes south. Maybe we can get a bit of anger at the Gander.

Lots of Crawley fans tried with Wimbledon but they really didn't care about us.

Casey

 

[denzel ecfc]

I think it’s a combination of things and very much depends on age group as well. From watching from the late 70’s I’d say the key things are 1) Exeter is where Devon County Council is based and there is a perception that big decisions favour Exeter over Plymouth (which is 2.5 times the size). I personally think this is bollocks. 2) Exeter especially these days is much more affluent than Plymouth and that grates with some. 3) There has been a lot of violence at the fixtures especially in the last century, which there hasn’t been with Torquay. 4) For Exeter fans, getting one over on the “bigger” club is also sweeter. Seems to be passed done from generation to generation for Exeter fans as well. 5) finally, the local media have had presenters who are clearly biased towards Plymouth which massively pisses Exeter fans off. There was a guy on local television who presented sports news in the 80’s called Dick Woodacre who actually used to smile when reading out if Exeter had lost !!, he was a big Plymouth fan.
Mix all that lot together and you end up with something much bigger than any rivalry with Torquay

Devon County Council doesn't cover Plymouth any more, they are unitary.
I think its to do with us both being cities. Plus if you want to go shopping in Devon, you either go to Exeter or Plymouth. You wouldn't go to Torquay

 

[Sydney Posse]

Devon County Council doesn't cover Plymouth any more, they are unitary.
I think its to do with us both being cities. Plus if you want to go shopping in Devon, you either go to Exeter or Plymouth. You wouldn't go to Torquay

Thanks Denzel. I’ve been in Oz for a few years and a bit behind the times these days

 

[Vale on Trent]

In my opinion, Stoke are our only rivals. I hate them with a passion and they hate us just as much.

We haven’t been in the same league as them since 2001.

If we played them in a league or cup game again I think it would be carnage.

I just think derbies like Vale and Stoke and Bristol City and Rovers have a different edge to them. Same city clubs, big club vs small and don’t play each other regularly.

 

[Carver]

Hartlepool are the only club in this league who we have any kind of local darby feel to and that's probably just from idiot hooligans making a thing out of it in the last 20 years or so.

And yes the thing with Barrow just comes out of the local media of which no one gives a shit, I actually have a soft spot for them really as they're a fellow county club which we've not seen in decades.

 

[valefan16]

In my opinion, Stoke are our only rivals. I hate them with a passion and they hate us just as much.

We haven’t been in the same league as them since 2001.

If we played them in a league or cup game again I think it would be carnage.

I just think derbies like Vale and Stoke and Bristol City and Rovers have a different edge to them. Same city clubs, big club vs small and don’t play each other regularly.

Based on the absolute literal carnage when we played their kids in the Paint Pot I think it wouldn’t be pretty!

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Bristol City currently have a 2592 page thread (77.8k replies) all about little old us. Started in 2015 and hardly off their 1st page. Says it all really...always in their heads

 

[Lemsagam Out]

Depends on what generation of fan you ask. Those who watched us in the 70s/80s would say Blackburn/Bolton. Those who watched us in the 00s would probably say Huddersfield or Tranmere. The yoof of today would probably say Rochdale.

There is a universal dislike of Man U and, to a lesser extent, Man City but it would clearly be a stretch to call that a rivalry given the majority of their fans won’t have even heard of Oldham.

Tranmere and Rochdale are the two I looked out for on the fixture list at the start of the season but I wouldn’t say we have a proper ‘rival’ as such.

We likely won't be 'rivals' with Rochdale for much longer under the current owner. Instead, we're probably going to be playing the likes of Curzon Ashton and Altrincham in the near future.

 

[GEORGE]

Bristol City currently have a 2592 page thread (77.8k replies) all about little old us. Started in 2015 and hardly off their 1st page. Says it all really...always in their ( Shit ) heads

Just to be totally accurate

 

[Casey]

We were playing Bristol City the day Rovers were relegated to the conference. The scenes of jubilation were quite bizarre.

I know I'm a supporter of a small no real rivals club but cheering the relegation of another team seems odd to me.

Casey

 

[valefan16]

We were playing Bristol City the day Rovers were relegated to the conference. The scenes of jubilation were quite bizarre.

I know I'm a supporter of a small no real rivals club but cheering the relegation of another team seems odd to me.

Casey

Our fans were in a right party mood when Stoke went down in the early kick off… so much so we didn’t even care about a 5-0 final day drubbing at Cambridge!

 

[JaredSUFC]

We were playing Bristol City the day Rovers were relegated to the conference. The scenes of jubilation were quite bizarre.

I know I'm a supporter of a small no real rivals club but cheering the relegation of another team seems odd to me.

Casey

On the last day of the 2005/06 season Sutton’s ‘rivals’ carshalton athletic had to win their last game of the season and hope Hayes didn’t win theirs to have any chance of staying up in the Conference South. Hayes’ opponents on the final day? Sutton United.

Let’s say that was a 2-1 defeat that was enjoyed by some Sutton supporters.

 

[Lemsagam Out]

In my opinion, Stoke are our only rivals. I hate them with a passion and they hate us just as much.

We haven’t been in the same league as them since 2001.

If we played them in a league or cup game again I think it would be carnage.

I just think derbies like Vale and Stoke and Bristol City and Rovers have a different edge to them. Same city clubs, big club vs small and don’t play each other regularly.

I remember plenty of Vale fans claim Crewe as their rivals as well.

 

[MadJohn]

Celebrating a rival's relegation is a bit... sad. Darlington are our only rivals; we are theirs. I want to beat them, and I want to finish above them in the league. That's it. Scratch beneath the surface and they are just us with a different postcode. We have far more in common with Darlington than we do with trash like Liverpool, Man Utd and their ilk, clubs who would happily stand on the rubble of our dead clubs just to reach more gold.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

We were playing Bristol City the day Rovers were relegated to the conference. The scenes of jubilation were quite bizarre.

I know I'm a supporter of a small no real rivals club but cheering the relegation of another team seems odd to me.

Casey

They (represented by Scott Murray) even presented the Mansfield goalscorer with a bottle of Champagne and declared the date of the game as 'Colin Daniel Day'

The Colin Daniel Fund Raiser...

Mods, I'd really rather this not be merged with the NLBR thread, because i think we all see it as one last kick in the balls to the horse punchers. A few of us have decided to start a fund to send Colin Daniel a thank you card and bottle of (inexpensive) champagne to mark what he did for us on 3r...

www.otib.co.uk

Quite sad how they somehow feel we should be competing with them as they are bankrolled by one of the richest tax dodgers in England, I mean Guernsey.
Same City rivalry is a lot fiercer. We would celebrate their relegation as well tbh.

 

[RiftHouseLad]

Celebrating a rival's relegation is a bit... sad. Darlington are our only rivals; we are theirs. I want to beat them, and I want to finish above them in the league. That's it. Scratch beneath the surface and they are just us with a different postcode. We have far more in common with Darlington than we do with trash like Liverpool, Man Utd and their ilk, clubs who would happily stand on the rubble of our dead clubs just to reach more gold.

Greed thats what it is.
But never forget the Football Family, The FA love us all equally.

 

[denzel ecfc]

They (represented by Scott Murray) even presented the Mansfield goalscorer with a bottle of Champagne and declared the date of the game as 'Colin Daniel Day'

The Colin Daniel Fund Raiser...

Mods, I'd really rather this not be merged with the NLBR thread, because i think we all see it as one last kick in the balls to the horse punchers. A few of us have decided to start a fund to send Colin Daniel a thank you card and bottle of (inexpensive) champagne to mark what he did for us on 3r...

www.otib.co.uk

Quite sad how they somehow feel we should be competing with them as they are bankrolled by one of the richest tax dodgers in England, I mean Guernsey.
Same City rivalry is a lot fiercer. We would celebrate their relegation as well tbh.

How can you say same city rivalry is fiercer?
There are pretty fierce rivalries between cities - Southampton and Portsmouth, Newcastle and Sunderland, Swansea and Cardiff, that I wager will be as fierce as yours.

 

[GEORGE]

How can you say same city rivalry is fiercer?
There are pretty fierce rivalries between cities - Southampton and Portsmouth, Newcastle and Sunderland, Swansea and Cardiff, that I wager will be as fierce as yours.

If you have'nt experienced the rivalry of a city/town with two teams . You would'nt understand. It simply does'nt just happen when you play each other. It goes on 24/7 52 weeks a year. Neighbour hating neighbour.

 

[denzel ecfc]

If you have'nt experienced the rivalry of a city/town with two teams . You would'nt understand. It simply does'nt just happen when you play each other. It goes on 24/7 52 weeks a year. Neighbour hating neighbour.

Whatever mate. I wonder if any lurking Liverpool fans will confirm that they hate Everton more than United...

 

[Boz]

Whatever mate. I wonder if any lurking Liverpool fans will confirm that they hate Everton more than United...

Everton/Liverpool is a strange one. My late Dad was a Red Scouse fan and in his youth went to Everton games when Liverpool away. Think it’s only in the last 20 years or so the rivalry has become more acrimonious maybe as the gulf between them grew wider.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Having no rival makes your life easier. Less to get worked up about.
We have no rivals. We tried with derby in the championship but they don’t give a fuck about us.
I quite like it. Must be horrible to be in a city with 2 teams the day after you lose, or on the way home. Can’t be pleasant.