Football's "best" local derby is?

[tikay]

They don't seem to have the impact they used to, as TV allows us to see so many.

Presumably the Glasgow derby is near the top of the list ranked by most criteria.

Where would Manchester rank? Newcastle & the North East derby's? Birmingham? Liverpool? Bristol?

In London, we have so many, but Spurs Arsenal seems to be the only real one. West Ham & Chelsea seem almost not to count.

The Brentford/Fulham QPR derby's used to mean something, not sure if they still do.

How would you rank them, best & worst?

[DungBeetle]

We don't play them any more, but Watford v Luton is really, really, nasty.  A chance for middle aged hooligans from the 80s to come out and revisit their youth.  The last game 6/7 years ago in he league cup had police horses on the pitch.  I don't think I'd go if it came up in the FA Cup, and I definitely wouldn't take my lad.

[horseplayer]

Sevilla betis is nasty


http://backpagefootball.com/the-history-of-the-derbi-sevillano/52814/

[TightEnd]

they are all big in their own ways aren't they

the old firm derby for sure, they played each other 4 times a season for starters until recently. Familiarity breeds (rivalry) contempt

but go to Plymouth-Exeter or Bristol C-Rovers and the passion is just as strong. just without the media coverage

[tikay]

Guess I should have included Derby & Forest, that gets pretty feisty.

Wonder what they are like in sleepy East Anglia? Do they get excited out there?

[vegaslover]

Hard to define the 'best' derby, but would obv have the old firm derby right up there.

In the top leagues it seems to depend on how the teams are doing. Liverpool-Everton used to be very feisty, but less so nowadays are neither team look like winning anything.

The Man U - City games have obv become much bigger games the past few seasons.

Out of the league, Crawley used to have a large following and extra Police was always needed when they played away at local teams as they used to bring so many fans with them

[booder]

Guess I should have included Derby & Forest, that gets pretty feisty.

Wonder what they are like in sleepy East Anglia? Do they get excited out there?

There is a lot of hatred from some Norwich and Ipswich fans towards each other but not as much as the late 70s and 80s.
The Boxing Day derbys used to be particularly vicious.

[POWWWWWWWW]

I think United v Liverpool is way bigger/more important to both sets of fans than either United v City or Liverpool v Everton.

[The Camel]

The Sheffield derby is pretty fruity.

[arbboy]

Of all the places I have lived nothing comes close to Pompey Southampton.  I was there the year they played for the first time in thirty odd years but the boozers left like they could explode at any time that weekend.

[Nakor]

I attended Blackpool vs Wigan with a group of Wigan fans circa 1997 - was an FA Cup tie, they had not played for years if I remember correctly, and the atmosphere in the ground was raw (not helped by a bunch of Wigan fans in the home end), but the atmosphere around the town for the rest of the weekend was horrific.  Fights in every bar and club, lots a pre arranged "meets" all from people who did not actually appear to go to the game.  I could not believe that 2 sets of fans could hate each other so much.  I have been lucky to see Everton vs Liverpool, Arsenal vs Spurs, Spurs vs Arsenal and Celtic vs Rangers and have never witnessed anything like that weekend in Blackpool.

[bagel]

Burnley v blackburn.

[mulhuzz]

Only one worth considering.

Our bag of shite vs the bag of shite from the dark place.

[david3103]

The Manchester derby matters, of course it does, and it's significance is increasing again since City got good and Liverpool got less good. (This comment can be ignored in seasons where we lose to City and beat Liverpool)

The Glasgow derby is probably the British one with the most passion.
I remember listening to one a few years back and when Celtic scored (at Celtic Park) the noise was so loud that it blew something in the Radio set up and they went off air for a while.

[Teacake]

I must have been to over 60 Celtic Rangers games, it's a right of passage when you're growing up.

My first one saw 3 red cards, Terry Butcher, Chris Woods and Frank McAvennie all up in court and Rangers equalise with 9 men in injury time.

The atmosphere at Celtic Park and Ibrox is incredible, at Hampden it's actually really poor. The safest place to be is at the game as its so heavily policed, pretty much all of the trouble is in and around pubs.

Top of my bucket list is Boca v River by a mile.