The South Coast Derby is scheduled to make its highly anticipated return to the Championship next season.
As the 2024/25 campaign concluded, numerous Portsmouth supporters were eagerly hoping the club would remain in the Championship. Their desire wasn`t solely about avoiding relegation, but significantly about securing the opportunity to compete against their fierce rivals, Southampton.
These two clubs have experienced vastly different fortunes since their last league match-up in the 2011/12 season. In that specific season, Southampton successfully gained promotion to the Premier League, while simultaneously, Portsmouth were relegated to League One.
Southampton has enjoyed periods including European football, whereas Portsmouth endured spells in the lower divisions, reaching as low as League Two. However, both teams now find themselves back in the Championship, the same division they occupied 13 years ago, preparing to rekindle their rivalry.
With pre-season training just around the corner, fans on both sides of this rivalry will be paying close attention to the upcoming EFL fixture release date. This is when they will discover exactly when the crucial South Coast Derby matches will take place during the 2025/26 season.
When Southampton and Portsmouth Will Learn Their Fixture Dates
According to information provided by the official EFL website, the announcement of the league fixtures is set for the end of this month, specifically on Thursday, June 26.
This means supporters won`t have a long wait before finding out the dates when these two historic rivals will face off again.
The 2025/26 Championship season is slated to begin on the weekend spanning from Friday, August 8, to Sunday, August 10.
The campaign in the second tier is scheduled to conclude on the weekend of May 2nd/3rd, 2026.
Southampton vs Portsmouth: Head-to-Head Record
A significant majority of the matches played between Southampton and Portsmouth occurred before the year 2000. Since the turn of the millennium, the clubs have only been in the same league division for a maximum of two consecutive seasons at a time.
The teams have met a total of 71 times in `first-class` competitive fixtures since their very first encounter in 1900. That initial meeting saw Portsmouth defeat Southampton twice within a three-day period. They clashed 43 times before 1927, after which there was a substantial 33-year gap without any matches, primarily because Portsmouth were playing in a higher league than their rivals.
Moving forward to the post-millennium era, the clubs have only faced each other 10 times. Over the past 25 years, the momentum and divisional status have shifted back and forth between the two.
Throughout the 2000s, the clubs did not meet in the league as Portsmouth were competing in the Premier League while the Saints were in the Championship and League One. Subsequently, in the 2010s, the situation reversed, with Portsmouth even dropping down to League Two for four seasons.
*It should be noted that Portsmouth incurred a 10-point deduction in the 2011/12 season due to administration issues.
In those 10 most recent encounters, Southampton emerged victorious five times. There were two draws, and Portsmouth secured three wins. Overall, Southampton hold the historical edge in the fixture, having won 35 of the 71 total meetings. Portsmouth have won 21 times, with the points being shared on 15 occasions.
Therefore, the stage is set for this long-standing rivalry, with the clubs separated by just 20 miles, to be rekindled this upcoming season. Their last league meetings in the 2011/12 season both ended in draws, meaning neither side has claimed a league derby win since 2005. Supporters and players alike on both sides will undoubtedly be eagerly awaiting the fixture list to discover when they will have the opportunity to gain bragging rights in 2025/26.
