Why are Derby County NOT our bitter rivals?

[Burt]

It took me ages to get over the Derby game.

Not just because it cost us promotion (although as others have mentioned, our form wasn't great at that point so the seeds had already been sown in the lead-up to that game).

But because it was a brutal experience for our team (who were all but kicked off the pitch) and those of us who were there (trouble inside and outside the ground before, during and after).

And also because it exposed Grahem Kelly and the rest of his FA cronies as weak and inept, as to this day I believe that this match was the only one ever to be abandoned without getting replayed. Since then I have despised the FA and they have consistently lived up to my very low expectations of them.

[Burt]

I think I have mellowed with age because I don't really view any club as bitter rivals now.

For example, I've got good friends who are QPR and Brentford followers, and they are the same as us - passionate about a relatively small, local, unfashionable club which have spent most of their history in peaceful mediocrity with an occasional burst in to the limelight :)

More similarities than differences, to be honest.

[The Rock]

I have a sort of mate who is a Gills fan.
Although not allowed in the ground, when they gather in pubs on match days, it is not unusual to hear area choruses of either "Al Fayed has got a monkeys head", or worse " Matthew Fox went home in a box". How sick is that?

If we were to be drawn way to them (on a Saturday) in the cup, I could see old hostilities being  renewed, particularly with the younger guys that seem to make it to a lot of our away games these days.

Pulling into that train station on SE trains where the stadium is visible from the train on the west side, I'd rather pass on a rumble but feel what you are saying. Little close for comfort. I do like the Medway towns and points south too though.