Southampton and Portsmouth meet for the 74th South Coast derby on Sunday (12:00 BST) at St Mary’s, a fixture that has produced no league winner for either club since 2005.
Neither side could claim bragging rights last season, when the two clubs met in the league for the first time since 2012. The game at St Mary’s ended in an anti-climactic scoreless draw, before the return at Fratton Park finished 1-1. Leo Scienza scored for Southampton and ran the entire length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the travelling Saints fans, only for Ebou Adams to head home a late equaliser and salute the Fratton End in similar fashion.
The build-up to this one has been dominated by events off the pitch at Southampton, where everyone connected with the club had been waiting anxiously for a verdict on the future of head coach Tonda Eckert. It arrived on Wednesday, when the FA announced a suspended six-week ban and a £28,000 fine for his role in the Spygate scandal. Crucially for Saints, that leaves him free to be in the dugout on Sunday and beyond, and minutes after the announcement the club posted a video of Eckert cheering with supporters on their social media channels.
“I think this news will be a little shot in the arm for them before the derby,” said former Southampton striker James Beattie. “As a player that’s one less thing to worry about and it frees you up to focus on the game. The lads are human at the end of the day and it would have been playing on their minds a little bit. Now it’s been sorted they can look forward. The timing of the decision couldn’t be better and hopefully they can go on and put in a really good performance at St Mary’s.”
History explains why the occasion carries such weight. Since 1996 the sides have met just 12 times in all competitions, eight of them in the Premier League or Championship, so each meeting feels like a genuine event. Both sets of supporters already carry derogatory songs about the other in their weekly matchday repertoire, and the derby gives them a rare chance to aim them directly at their rivals; last season’s fixtures were preceded by chants of “we’re coming for you” from fans who had waited years for the league meetings to return.
The wait for a league win is a long one. Portsmouth’s 4-1 thrashing of Saints at Fratton Park in 2005 remains the last time either club beat the other in a league fixture, with Lomana LuaLua winning a penalty and scoring twice inside the opening half an hour that day. The four league meetings since have all ended even, while Portsmouth won an FA Cup tie in 2010 and Southampton enjoyed a convincing League Cup victory in 2019. The frustration of neither side winning carried over into this season’s fixture.
Portsmouth arrive with a rebuilt attack. John Mousinho and sporting director Rich Hughes worked with an increased transfer budget in the summer, spending more than £10m on additions. That marked a significant shift for a club that had not paid more than £1.5m for a single player in about 15 years, a threshold they crossed four times on forwards Marko Milovanovic and Tyrese Shade, winger Abu Kamara and midfielder Rocco Shein. Milovanovic, a 6ft 6in striker, has impressed in spells and has two Championship goals this season, but fitness issues have limited him and he has not played in Pompey’s last two matches; when fit he appears to be Mousinho’s preferred choice up front. Shein looked a classy addition on his debut, shining in the first half of the EFL Cup defeat by West Ham at London Stadium, and has since played in all seven league matches in a deeper midfield position, mostly alongside captain Marlon Pack. Kamara and Shade have shown promise without yet making a statement on the pitch, registering an assist each.
One attacker who has caught the eye instead is Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, the 17-year-old winger on loan from Chelsea, who has scored once and assisted once this season. In early September he suffered a double fracture to his right hand but opted against surgery in order to keep playing with a splint on his arm, accepting a longer recovery period. The decision appeared to impress Mousinho, who labelled the forward as a player and person who “ticks all the boxes”.
Southampton’s own form makes them dangerous, especially at home, where they have a perfect four wins from four and 15 goals scored. They began the season on minus four points but have motored up to 10 after eight games, beating Stoke City, Millwall, Swansea and Bristol City handsomely at St Mary’s. Finn Azaz has three goals and five assists in eight Championship matches since joining from Middlesbrough in the summer of 2025, lining up as the number 10 in Eckert’s 4-2-3-1 just behind the striker and between the wingers, and he provided the assist for Southampton’s opening goal of the derby at Fratton Park last season. Scienza has continued to look dangerous after a breakout campaign in which he was named Southampton’s player of the season with 17 Championship goal contributions, while Cyle Larin is the division’s top scorer. If Portsmouth are to keep that attack out they will have to defend at their best: they have kept two clean sheets in seven league games this season.