Albion v Wolves - the biggest of all?
BATON down the hatches, lock away your daughters, keep your trousers fastened.
The Wolves v Albion clash has been described as the biggest football rivarly.
And rightly so.
The Black Country derby has come out on top in the Football Rivalries Report 2008, published recently by the New Football Pools from information gathered from more than 6,000 members of the Football Fans Census.
Liverpool and Everton may be regarded as one of the biggest but the two sets of fans were sat side by side until recent games. Some even described it, wrongly in my view, as the 'friendly derby'.
Villa and Blues - one has won the European Cup, the other a Sherpa Van Trophy. Hardly an equal match, despite Blues bucking the trend during the Enckelman years.
Norwich and Ipswich hate each other but are 50 miles apart - a journey which takes three days and two nights to complete in a Massey-Ferguson.
Manchester United and City? City have had the upper hand this season but you can't compare the two.
Spurs and Arsenal used to be big but, again, Arsenal have pulled way ahead of their rivals.
The East Midlands offers little, Southampton and Portsmouth has become a mismatch and the two Bristol clubs very rarely meet.
Sheffield's bragging rights may be important in Woodseats but, sorry fellas, the game lacks the intensity to make a mark on a national scale.
Newcastle and Sunderland go close, as does the poisonous Welsh meeting between Swansea and Cardiff. But in both cases one of the two rival clubs has spent long periods in a different division to their nemesis. And how can the Welsh meeting really be taken seriously when the two cities are just as busy squabbling over a game which uses a funny shaped ball.
Millwall and West Ham is more about fighting than football. And, again, when do the two clubs ever meet?
Albion and Wolves has everything. Two clubs who are fairly similar in size, stature, status and historical achievement. They are just 12 miles apart, the fans work together, live in the same streets and maybe even belong to the same family. It's more than just a football match. Equally it's more than just an excuse for a few thugs to beat seven bells out of each other.
It's got a historical significance but maintains a huge presence in today's more diluted climate.
Surely no other derby in England ticks more boxes than tonight's fixture.
And then there's the small issue of a promotion battle.
Anyway, enough of that - here is the full list.
1. West Bromwich Albion & Wolves
2. Ipswich Town & Norwich City
3. Liverpool & Manchester United
4. Portsmouth & Southampton
5. Cardiff City & Swansea City
6. Aston Villa & Birmingham
7. Sheffield United & Sheffield Wednesday
8. Bristol Rovers & Bristol City
9. Newcastle & Sunderland
10. Brighton & Crystal Palace
11. Derby & Nottingham Forest
12. Blackpool & Preston
13. Darlington & Hartlepool
14. Luton & Watford
15. Blackburn & Burnley
16. Port Vale & Stoke
17. Arsenal & Tottenham
18. Grimsby & Scunthorpe
19. Everton & Liverpool
20. Leeds & Man United
21. Chester & Wrexham
22. Chesterfield & Mansfield
23. Northampton & Peterborough
24. Bury & Rochdale
25. Man City & Man United
26. Coventry & Leicester
27. Millwall & West Ham
28. Accrington Stanley & Morecambe
29. Colchester & Southend
30. Macclesfield & Stockport
So, what do you reckon? Agree or not?
(10) comments so far add yours here
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Chris Lepkowski
Mail man Chris Lepkowski’s view of what’s going on at West Bromwich Albion FC.
im with you chris.
makes me laugh when blues fans think there derby with villa is big. it shouldnt even be in top 10
suprised that albion vs villa isnt in there. some villa fans regard that as biger than blues
Likewise, when I was growing up in the 70s the rivalry was with Villa. Don't remember anyone talking about Wolves. Happy for the country's top derby to be discussed this morning though..:-)
I'm a twin and my brother hates the Villa far more than the Wolves, whereas I'm the other way round.
He (our kid) followed the Baggies years before I got hooked, hence our split, so I'm also suprised to see that there's no Albion v Villa esp. when you consider the distance (or lack of) between the grounds.
Still, we've got different accents than the Brummies and Villa have been in the top flight far, far longer than us in recent years so I suppose it's understandable we're more closely associated with the Wolves.
Before your split? Were you siamese or just 'special' Black Country brothers?
zzzzzzz Albion are neither here nor there: in Birmingham, the Black Country, Smethwick, Sandwell, or Islamabad?
Last team in our region to reach a major domestic final were Blues actually. Oh, and it was Leyland DAF as well they won. Albion still live off 68, Big Ron in the 70s/80s and...er, Frank Skinner and Adrian Chiles.....
Wolves are a much bigger club and to describe the derby as the biggest etc is laughable. Maybe in Wednesbury but that's about it. Come back when you can all speak properly and correct that cross-eyed problem
The trouble with thick brummys (like boingboingbllocks) is that they give us yam yams a bad reputation.
Albion don't live off 68, 70s or 80s. And most of us think Chiles and Skinner are prize A tvvats.
Sorry bluenose but Wolves and Albion is a bigger derby than anything you lot can muster vs villa. Id say that even villa v cov is bigger.
Blues are an embarrasment to the midlands.
As for being cross eyed. Have you never been to small heath? Or Witton?
The one thing us and the dingles have going for us is that we ay brummies.
Id rather be a scouser, manc or cockney than a thick sounding brummy.
Yours
Darlaston Daz
Bless...they've learned to use computers in the Black Country now.
Bless...they've learned to use computers in the Black Country now.
Do you thick brum-mays have computers in Nechells or Sparkbrook.
A brum-may taking the micky out of a yam yam is like a pauper taking the micky out of a prince.
The second city? Yes, after Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol maybe.