Crewe Alexandra (H) 13th October 2012

Tuesday night and it was cup time again as Pompey lined up in the Johnstones Paint Trophy Second Round against Wycombe Wanderers. This was the fixture on the accumulator that everyone had done as a home win; it was the banker and the one fixture on paper that shouldn’t really have been a doubt. Going into the game after a strong first half performance against MK Dons at the weekend Pompey should have had enough in the tanks to overturn a side not only in the league below, but one who currently sit third bottom just out of the relegation zone. This was a game where Pompey could stamp their authority and build some confidence and yet someone forgot to send Wycombe their copy of the script and it took just embarrassing 13 seconds into the game for them to take the lead through Joel Grants effort. Sometimes it’s not the context of defeat that matters it’s the very manner and nature of defeat that hits home and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. I can’t imagine that anyone really cares about going out of a competition labelled by the fans as the Tin Pot Trophy, but what will have hurt is the score line and who the opposition are. Going one behind so early can sometimes be excusable if you get back on level terms quick enough, but going 2-0 down in the space of the opening eight minutes leaves real questions marks about the players commitment and the end score line of 3-1 simply isn’t good enough. That’s the magic of any cup though I suppose and good luck to the Trust owned Wanderers in the rest of the competition.

 

Back at the business end of the season and Pompey take on Crewe tomorrow who currently occupy 15^th place in the league on 13 points and a win will see us leap frog them in the table. So far on their travels Manager Steve Davis side has seen his side collect five points from a possible fifteen having won only once and drawn twice. A 5-0 win at home to Hartlepool United in the League Cup shows that on their day they are a side capable of being amongst the goals, but the 5-1 away defeat in the league to Brentford shows that they are equally as capable of conceding goals and their goal difference currently sits at a total of -5. In seven league and cup games away Crewe have only managed one clean sheet so far this season so Pompey really must go into tomorrow’s game with a stern belief that they can find the back of the oppositions net.

Crewe were promoted last season via the play offs having finished in 7^th place and like Pompey are taking a while to really find their feet in their new surroundings of the NPower League One. Mention Crewe and I automatically think of two things; Dario Gradi and their academy set up. Pound for pound the results of their academy must rank up there as some of the best in the world. With all the millions that Chelsea have spent on their academy which has born little success other than that of John Terry you’ve got to wonder what Gradi would have been able to achieve with the same level of finance. Sadly for Crewe they will remain a selling club at the end of the day but the uppermost respect should be given for what they’ve achieved and for what Gradi has achieved for the club. Sadly though, that’s modern football for you and clubs have to do what they can to survive from season to season.

Historically Crewe have the upper hand in previous meetings between the two clubs. In 14 outings Crewe have won 6, Pompey 4 and 4 draws. Crewe also have the upper hand when it comes to goals scored with a total of 21 to 19. Pompey haven’t beaten Crewe since October 2000 and are waiting on the fitness of Michalik who went off with an injury during the JPT tie. Darel Russell remains sidelined though Jack Thompson is back available for selection.

Swindon Town (H) 18th September 2012

Pompey welcome Paolo Di Canio’s men for their second home game in the space of four days following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Walsall. Swindon’s fans will have started the season in high hopes after winning the NPower League Two title last season and apart from a 0-0 draw against Hartlepool their month of August couldn’t have gone any better if planned. Their opening game saw a 3-0 home win to Gus Poyet’s Brighton and Hove Albion in the Carling Cup First Round and this was followed up with a 4-3 win after extra time to Premiership outlet Stoke City managed by ex-Pompey manager Tony Pulis. In the league there were home win’s against Crawley Town (3-0) and MK Dons (1-0) as Swindon collected seven points out of a possible nine and a place in the Carling Cup third round where they’ll face Eddie Howe’s Burnley.  

September however has seen The Robins form dip and they go into tomorrow’s game without a win in four in all competitions. The month started with a heavy away defeat to Preston North End (4-1) before losing their derby game in the JPT to Oxford United away (1-0). They lost their successive game at home to Leyton Orient (1-0) before drawing their last game away to Carlisle United (2-2).

Historically games between the two teams have never been shy of goals. In 67 competitive games Pompey have scored a total of 102 times to Swindon’s tally of 107. In terms of results Swindon have the upper hand with 26 wins to 23 with 18 draws in total, although Pompey are undefeated in the past five games against Town. The last game between the two sides in March 2000 saw a 4-1 win at Fratton Park.

There’s sure to be a warm reception tomorrow night for the return of Matt Ritchie who was sold by Steve Cotterill for what looks like a bargain fee reported to have been just £100,000. Since his permanent switch to The Robins the player has gone from strength to strength and alongside his NPower Two League winners medal for last season he also collected the NPower Two player of the year award and was awarded the same accolade by Four Four Two magazine. Despite only making seven appearances in a Pompey shirt many fans felt that he was released too early by Cotterill and his performances since his departure have only gone onto strengthen that argument.

Today saw the return of Conor Clifford to parent club Chelsea following the expiry of his one month loan deal and Michael Appleton is assessing the fitness of Burnley defender Kevin Long before deciding whether or not to renew the defenders loan period further. New signing Lubomir Michalik could make his Pompey debut in his place. Jordan Obita is once again available for selection following the completion of his three match ban after his sending off against Oldham Athletic.

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.

AFC Bournemouth (H) Aug 18th 2012 Preview

It seems hard to believe after the last few months that tomorrow will see Pompey kick off the new season ahead with the visit of neighbours AFC Bournemouth. Even the script writers of BBC One’s Eastenders and ITV’s Coronation Street combined couldn’t have written the developments of what had gone on to even get to this juncture so it will come as a relief to the majority of fans that for 90 minutes tomorrow the events on the pitch will outweigh the heavy shadow of anything still transpiring off the pitch. All summer those ready to hammer the last nail in the coffin have waited patiently for their chance to do so, but for one more month at least the gates of Fratton Park will play host to League football. The names on the team sheet may not be familiar to all but one thing will remain certain, whatever the result come full time tomorrow the fans will have backed the team with passion and pride and reminded the footballing world that no matter what has happened in matters out of their hands, Pompey fans remain committed to the club and amongst the best supporters in the land. I would of course be totally biased to suggest that the fans are the very best English football. Let’s just say they do okay despite the difficult circumstances the club has found itself in over the past few seasons.

This time last year the Championship was already fully underway and a squad devoid of any depth had begun under the stewardship of Steve Cotterill for a second season on the trot; at least one thing had remained consistent season to season, though his spell in charge was to only last until mid October when he replaced Steve McLaren as the new manager of Nottingham Forest. The season had opened with an away trip to Middlesbrough where a last gasp injury time equaliser from Luke Varney rescued a point for the south coast club having twice trailed in the game. David Norris was the other scorer on the team sheet that day. The game was probably most noteworthy for the five yellow cards collected on the day in what became a prolonged period of ill-discipline as players struggled to conform to Cotterill’s negative tactics. Just 90 minutes into the season and we’d received five yellow cards; Tal Ben Haim, Halford, Hreidarrson, Ward and Mokeona all found their way into the notebook of referee Graham Salisbury.  

Next up and the first home game of the season and the derby game against Brighton and Hove Albion in front of a somewhat disappointing gate of 16,496 (considering the distance between the two sides on the South Coast) saw Pompey go down to their first home defeat of the season 1-0 after a first half injury time winner from Craig Mackail-Smith. Following on from the Boro game the referee was in for a busy afternoon with another five players receiving yellow cards; Tal Ben-Haim, Varney, Kitson, Hreidarrson and Lawrence making 10 bookings in just two games.

August 16^th saw Pompey record their first win of the campaign against the eventual Championship winners Reading in front of an again disappointing crowd of just 13,438 as a rare Dave Kitson goal secured a 1-0 win. Mullins and Ward duly kept the referee busy as they made it 12 bookings in three games but Pompey had managed to secure four points from a possible nine in their first three games of what was to promise to be another long hard season.

Fast forward twelve months and very few faces remain within the ranks of the Portsmouth squad. Remaining are the fresh faced youngsters of Magri. Harris, Wallace and Webster who had been called into bolster the numbers by Manager Michael Appleton towards the end of last season before relegation ensued in the NPower League One.  Tomorrow’s league opener will see the Pompey faithful no doubt checking their programme’s on and off as the season begins once more in earnest. So alongside the names of the youngsters add those of the following who have all been signed on one month contracts the past two days;

Lee Williamson

Mikkel Andersen

Kieran Dijilali

Mustapha Dumbuya

Jon Harley

Brian Howard

Izale McLeod

Jack Compton

Luke Rodgers

Liam Walker

Simon Eastwood

Conor Clifford

Paul Conolly

Whatever the score line tomorrow afternoon this band of youngsters and free transfers will carry no weight of expectation from the fans, instead they will be cheered on like heroes with every kick of the ball they make, every tackle attempted, every jump they make to go up for a header; this is the Portsmouth’s supporters way and whoever pulls on the shirt for the club this season you can be sure of one thing from the fans – the noise. We’ve still got a club to support even if the contracts awarded have only been on a one month basis. Tomorrow the Pompey Chimes will ring out across NPower League One and there won’t be many sets of fans that come close to providing such an atmosphere in this league. We may be skint but you cannot take away our voices.

Bring on the Cherries!