Fanning The Flames

Some of the country’s most fierce rivalries have been on hold for decades, yet the animosity between opposing sets of supporters somehow endures.

- Tom Hancock

When the final whistle blew at the Britannia Stadium on February 10, 2002, no one in attendance was to know that they had just witnessed the end of an era. As their side sat third in what is now League One with 13 to play, the Stoke City supporters would have been quietly optimistic of promotion. The Port Vale following that day, meanwhile, would still have been hopeful of their team making the top six, having just defeated their bitter rivals 1-0 and with 14 fixtures left to bridge a nine-point gap. As it transpired that May, Stoke won promotion via the play-offs and Vale wound up well and truly in mid-table. It remains the last Potteries Derby to this day.

It’s just one example of a derby taken away in an instant by fate. Fans of Bristol Rovers and Bristol City will relate – their once regular meetings have been restricted to fleeting encounters in the Football League Trophy in recent times, with no league meeting since 2001 – while Portsmouth and Southampton haven’t regularly shared a division for more than four seasons at a time since the early 20th century, yet their rivalry arguably ranks as high in intensity as any. And in the case of the Potteries Derby, 32 years went by without it occurring from 1957 to 1989. That these rivalries remain in the absence of regular meetings is testament to the importance that a club’s history has for their fans .