HAMPSHIRE Police will approach next season’s derby with Cherries in the same fashion as this year’s FA Cup clash with Pompey.

Saints will host Eddie Howe’s men at some stage during the next campaign, after they achieved an improbable promotion to League One.

The two sides haven’t played each other in a competitive game since they met in the League Cup in 1987/88.

The last league game between them took place in the old division three in 1959/60.

In that respect, the next meeting will be a bit of an unknown quantity for everyone involved with the match.

But Hampshire Police have promised they will make sure they are not caught out by any violence or other surprises.

“The first one will be the test,” said Supt Rick Burrows, who oversees policing at St Mary’s.

“We’ll put in appropriate resources based on the current intelligence picture at the time.

“But it will be very much the same policing style we did for the Portsmouth game and the relevant number of resources.

“It’s about targeting those small numbers and we can do that quite easily.

“It will be a safe football event and we will deal robustly, quickly and efficiently with the small number of people who want to commit that disorder.”

Although there is little animosity from Saints towards the Cherries, there is some in the other direction.

Some of the initial rumblings after the Cherries fans realised they would be making a trip to St Mary’s next season took the police a little aback.

“I was surprised by that,” said Supt Burrows.

“I didn’t know there was any history.

“I thought they were both sort of south coast and probably more aligned than Southampton-Portsmouth certainly.

“So I was a bit surprised when I saw some of the intelligence and some of the (Internet) blogs.

“But I take those blogs and some of the immediate stuff with a pinch of salt.

“If we put huge resources into everything we see on websites we’d be over-policing all the time.”