Twenty-six years. Queens Park Rangers had not won a league game at Fratton Park since 2000. They picked Portsmouth's opening day to end the drought.
Three-one, away from home, in front of a full house. Saints supporters checking scores on Saturday teatime will have read that one twice.
Twenty-six years is a long time to wait
The nature of it made it better. Terry Devlin gave Pompey the lead from distance and the ground went wild, then QPR scored three times in a quarter of an hour before half-time and the noise drained out of the place.
Ilias Chair got two of them. Rangers head coach Julien Stephan afterwards praised the way his players handled what he called an "intense atmosphere", which is a polite way of saying his side silenced it.
Nobody on this side of the water will pretend to be neutral about that. A Portsmouth home defeat has always been worth a small celebration in Southampton, and an opening-day one carries extra flavour.
Why this one stings more than usual for Pompey
Portsmouth spent last season avoiding relegation, which is the context people forget when they talk about the derby being back.
Staying up bought them another year in the division and another crack at these fixtures. It did not buy them a squad ready to open a campaign at home to a well-run QPR side. Saturday exposed the difference in about fifteen minutes of football.
The rest of the opening day results will not have cheered the fans at Fratton Park either. Millwall beat Bristol City, West Brom won at Norwich, Swansea came from a goal down to win at Stoke, and Middlesbrough ended Lincoln's long unbeaten run. Pompey are already the story of the weekend for the wrong reasons.
Southampton, for all the misery of the summer, still have a squad that took 68 points from Tonda Eckert's 33 league games last season. That is the gulf a four-point deduction is currently disguising.
Fans should enjoy the schadenfreude while it lasts, mind, because Saints have their own opening day to survive at Vicarage Road this afternoon. Saints Marching has laid out the five players with most to prove before that one.
Lose today and the laughing stops sharpish. Win, and Southampton go to minus one with Portsmouth on nought, which is a scoreboard nobody down here will need explaining twice.
Twenty-six years, though. Some results are worth savouring even when they involve neither club you support.
Add us as a preferred source on Google