Seaons in History: 1980 / 1981

Thirty two years is a long time between visits to anywhere, but this is the length of time that represents the gap between tomorrow’s kick off in what is now known as the NPower League One and the last time a side from Portsmouth found themselves kicking off a match in the third tier of the English Football League having either secured promotion or via a subsequent relegation. The 1979 / 1980 season had seen Pompey promoted from the old Division Four in fourth place under Frank Burrows having scored an impressive tally of 91 goals en route, conceding 49 to leave the club with a goal difference of +42. It would be a further three seasons before Pompey would secure promotion once more when they won the Division Three Championship in the 1982 /1983 season.

Whilst the entry to the league may have been different with last season having ended in relegation from the Championship rather than via the route of promotion the 1980 / 81 season started with exactly the same fixture, although once again the name of the competitions has long since changed. Back in 1980 before the days where finance had overrun every angle of the game, Pompey kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 away win in the Football league Cup against Plymouth Argyle. The original format of the competition was two legged for the first two rounds and three days later a 2-1 home win secured their place into the next round against Oldham Athletic. Fast forward to the present day and Tuesday saw what’s surely the youngest ever Pompey team to be fielded in the history of the club crash out 3-0 in the Capital One Cup which is now a one legged affair. If it wasn’t the youngest to have started it must have ended the youngest when first team coach Ashley Westwood was replaced by Jack Maloney.

Football fans around the globe who aren’t familiar with the financial position of Pompey might have been forgiven for thinking that the squad numbers on show for this season’s curtain raiser might have demonstrated a squad depth akin to Manchester City’s so high were they but the reality of the situation was notably different; squad depth isn’t something that’s going to be mentioned at Fratton Park anytime this season. The starting line up with squad numbers was as such;

13 Eastwood

34 Butler

40 Westwood

38 Grant

22 Webster

39 Higgins

37 Colson

33 Magri

35 Wallace

36 Thompson

21 Harris

If it wasn’t for the appearances of first team coach Ashley Westwood at the age of 35 and goal keeper Simon Eastwood aged 23 starting the game, Manager Michael Appleton would have had to have begun the game with a team made up totally of teenagers. At kick off the average age was just shy of 20 years old. By the end of the game the introduction of 17 year old Jack Maloney on for the injured Westwood and 16 year old Bradley Tarbuck replacing Andy Higgins saw Pompey finished the game losers with an average player age of just over 18 years of age. A hardcore of an impressive 753 fans will one day be able to say that they were there the day Pompey ended a game playing ten teenagers in a first team competitive match.

The sport of football has changed beyond all belief since the season of 1980 / 1981 kicking off in high spirits following on from the club’s promotion. Looking down the names of the teams in the league Pompey had played against home and away from the previous season and this one we see that several teams no longer make up the DNA of the current 92 all four flights of modern football. In the 1979 / 80 season we had finished fourth, one place behind Newport County. Theirs isn’t the only name from that season to now be missing either; Aldershot Town, York City and Halifax Town have all subsequently slipped into the non leagues. The 1980 / 81 season saw us line up against Chester who would become Chester City in 1983 before the club was wound up in its current form in March 2010.

The 1980 / 81 for those whose memories go back that far will no doubt best be remembered for the October 4^th round Football League cup tie away to Liverpool which saw a 12,000 strong contingent of Pompey fans take over the Anfield Road End of the ground and out sing the famous Liverpool Kop Choir despite eventually losing the game 4-1.

One of the other notable differences back in the old Division Three was a win was awarded two points and there were no play offs back then either. Familiar names to Pompey fans that season will have included a certain Alan Knight who may have only made one appearance that season but he certainly etched his name of the minds of fans the season following onwards when he made 45 appearances in the 1981 / 82 season and would go onto make 683 league appearances for Pompey in total. That season also saw the debut of the versatile Mick Tait who had been signed for £100,000 from Hull City. Affectionately nicknamed ‘Yosser’ by the Fratton Faithful Tait would make a total of 241 appearances during his seven year stay with the club scoring 29 goals in the period. He appeared in every position except goal keeper for the club.

Pompey eventually finished the season in a respectable sixth position and attendances for the season in league and cup games didn’t once slip under the 10,000 mark for the entire duration. Whilst we start this season with the threat of being docked ten points for coming out of administration and may have fielded a team of almost teenagers against Plymouth Argyle in the Capital One Cup, this season promises to be one that could point back to the early days of the 1990s when the last decent crop of youngsters broke through the ranks from the youth team and made the grade in the first team. Whilst there might still be a dark shadow cast over Fratton Park with the off field problems still going on there is hope that the likes of England Under 19 international Sam Magri and the highly skilful Ashley Harris amongst others could join the names of Awford, Symons, Anderton and Powell to have made a real impact on the first team. No one’s going into this season blind but as fans we can always look towards a silver lining in every cloud as we begin to rebuild for the future and escape the mistakes of our past.