The sublime track by Above and Beyond – Thing Called Love featuring the vocal talents of Richard Bedford opens with a line “There was a time, there a place…” and feeling somewhat nostalgic tonight about Pompey for me right now - that time and place was following Pompey during the early 90s. There’s a post on one of the fans sites about trying to recreate the atmosphere at Fratton Park and the suggestion goes that fans could get help by learning new songs etc before the game by the use of visual aids such as YouTube. The mere suggestion that any fan should be set home work to learn a new song is a notion that I find quite troublesome and condescending. I’m going to skip the EPL years and say that unlike the highs of the early 90s under the then Pompey boss Jim ‘Bald Eagle’ Smith, the fans haven’t really had a lot to shout about on the pitch or reason to get behind the team. Since we beat Leicester in March, the only other win has come at home to Reading. Goals have been sparse, discipline has been horrendous from the players, so what is there to get excited about in the stands home or away right now? Aren’t the fans entitled to feel a bit glum if they watch another game without a win and wonder why they spent their hard earned money to watch a team who fail to deliver on the pitch once more and don’t feel much like singing through the game? Not to mention the obvious that ticket prices have risen and attendances have fallen so less fans will make less noise anyway, especially when things aren’t going right on the pitch.
During the early 90s you’d go to Fratton Park with the hairs stood up on your arms full of excitement. We had a cracking couple of seasons culminating in the FA Cup Semi Final loss to Liverpool after a reply and penalties and then missed out on automatic promotion by goal difference to West Ham United and then to one of the worst refereeing decisions in the history of the game against Leicester City in the play offs. As we know under subsequent managers such as Rix and Fenwick things went downhill after that and the rest is history. But during that time under Jim Smith the fans made noise because things were really happening on the pitch. But they also happened for other reasons such as economic factors governing the change In your back pocket and it was the throw back to the glory years of terracing. The fact that fan groups are calling on terracing to be returned to this country shouldn’t really be a surprise. The impending publication of the papers from Hillsborough will no doubt see another surge in support for their return. The biggest factor that no one has really considered will surely be when the new Fair Play rules come in about finance when the so called big boys and their rich benefactors can no longer bank roll their clubs to success. Where will the money come from then to pay players on hundreds of thousands a week? From the fans pockets in price rises! I think Platini might have shot himself in the foot there trying to grab a hold of the game and its finances. But the point I wish to make is that when terracing existed, going to football was a hell of a lot more exciting than it is sitting down for 90 minutes to watch a game and none more so than on the terraces of Fratton Park.
Health and safety has a lot to answer for. When we had terracing yes it could be quite hairy at times when goals were scored and fans rushed etc, but it was part of football and accepted then. Sure there was the odd injury, but you’ll still find someone tripping up a step having had far too any before the game. The nanny state can’t protect every single citizen in the UK.
Years ago at Fratton Park when the players ran out they would always get a ticker tape welcome even if it was in front of an attendance of 8,000. Bog rolls would fly down the stands and I’m sure more than one poor sod over the years has got clonked on the head during the course of this action. The Pompey chimes would cry out from all corners of the Pompey stands and opposing players must have wondered what the hell they’d stepped into in a tight and compact ground. They used to call it Fortress Fratton because we had a phenomenal home record most seasons. Perhaps my memory is tainted over the period of 25 years, but we only ever seemed to lose every season to Charlton and Derby at home and it was always 1-0. I’m sure that was a statistic to make myself feel better at the time cause I can remember us losing to Sunderland four seasons on the trot, once to a score line of 4-1 where a fan ran onto the pitch and showed Alan Knight how to kick a ball before being escorted from the ground by the local old bill. But when the club was doing well it had an atmosphere that pretty much couldn’t be rivalled in any league ground in the country. It was magical and those who were there will tell you home or away it was a great time to follow Pompey.
Take the Pompey wave for example – In hindsight it was such a stupid notion and you’ll never see it now. If you’ve never heard of it then you’re showing your age and I’m showing mine. I can remember an away game at Roots Hall on a Friday night which we won 3-2 and the Pompey fans were split between the terracing at one end of the ground and in seating in the corner next to it. Warren ‘Sumo’ Aspinall and Oooohhhh Johnny Lager were on the score sheet and midway through the second half the Pompey wave started between the two sets of travelling fans in the away end stood up and from those fans who were seated suddenly standing and waving back. For those of you who read this and have an Xbox, Play Station or similar – we had to make our own entertainment back then. It meant something to us and to some of us it still does.
These were the days when perennial under achievers like Aspinall and John Durnin became cult heroes with the fans. These were the days when the fans could relate to the players in some shape or form still and none so more than at Pompey in the 80s and 90s. John Durnin was nicknamed Jonny Lager. Do players even get nick names in football anymore? When was the last time you heard a chant aimed at a player in celebration of his drinking ability rather than his football skills? Take Warren Aspinall's weight and his subsequent problems off the pitch – You don’t here cries of Sumo coming down the terrace for a player nowadays.
When Paul Mariner signed for Pompey during the rise to the old first division in the mid to late 80s he was on a reported £2,000 a week. This was for a player in the twilight of his career and he was generally regarded to be one of the top earners in the first division if not the top earner of any player at any club. The season we returned to the top flight we spent in the region of £1.2 or £1.3 million on players - more than any other club in the league; More than Manchester United or Liverpool or any other so called top side back then. Yet we still got relegated and got into financial problems. Can you see a pattern immerging here?
The point remains that outside the ground to inside there was always a buzz on match day because it didn’t cost you the earth to go follow your club back then. You could watch the game, buy a programme and have a few pints (*I wasn’t obviously old enough at that point) and still have change in your pocket to go out into town of a night without having to have mortgaged your house and sold your children just to fund a day out watching football on a Saturday afternoon.
Attitudes to signings were so different back then. The likes of George Lawrence and Chris Burns would never happen in today’s market for a second tier side like we are now; The signings of players from the army such as Guy Whittingham and Lee Bradbury for £450 and £4,500 respectively. This will never happen again until the day the financial bubble bursts. The fee’s received for both players were in excess of £5 and a half million. How’s that for a bit of financial wheeler dealing?!?! Harry never did that well that’s for sure in terms of profit on a deal - Bloody good job too because he would have pocketed between 5 and 10% of the deal the bent bastard. I’m not even going to get started on that subject.
These were the days when youth players got a chance to come through the ranks and shine at Pompey. Ryan Williams might have had enough time on the pitch accumulatively this season to have finished a pint in the time than Johnny Lager would have finished seven pints. Back then we gave the opportunity to the likes of Awford, Symons, Anderton and Powell to name but four of the players we had come through one of the country’s finest academy production lines to grab their opportunity and shine. If Awford didn’t suffer that terrible injury at West Brom he would have been one of the finest defenders this country had ever seen. I was there that day and you could have heard a pin drop when he was lying down injured. Kit Symons went onto play for Wales at international level. Anderton for England and the memories of Euro 96, Powell went onto play for Jamaica in the World Cup of 94.
Home grown lads doing the business on the pitch for Pompey and their countries.
The clubs new owners have tentatively broken their silence and issued what they call their five year plan – Open brackets, closed brackets. They mention the academy and bringing through a production of players from there to serve the clubs needs. Having watched Sam Magri play for England in the Under 17 World Cup Finals this summer if that really is their intention as owners to blood the youngsters then this will be the only time since talks started about them coming in as owners that they will have had by backing on any level. Anyone that saw Magri’s performances against Germany and Argentina will know that he plays with an authority and calmness that defies his real age. In years to come he has the potential to make John Terry look ordinary as a player and with any luck Pompey will have the first player that could become the next Jimmy Dickinson. The lad looks that good and off the pitch he isn’t your typical young footballer in the making with a look at me attitude. How many players will make their debut and have to come on and mark Didier Drogba and Solomon Kalou and not lot panicked about it or fazed about playing in front of a large crowd? Bit things will happen for the lad when he gets his chance.
In the academy setup, every week Ashley Harris looks a certainty to secure goal of the season to then up his game again and score another wonder goal. George Colson, Lewis Stockford, Matt Gledhill, Chinedu Vine, Patrick Antelmi, Ryan Williams. Remember the names folks because the current crop of youngsters which went to Manchester United on the opening day of the season and secured a win are going to become a force to be reckoned with, with any luck and especially if CSI are true to their word.
Success on the pitch will bring the atmosphere back to Fratton Park. A return to terracing would bring an even bigger impact in my opinion – but the one thing looking back from a nostalgic point of view to bring the noise back is this suggestion that fans need to learn songs before the game. If we’re playing awful on the pitch and someone who has paid their hard earned money chooses to keep quiet and bury their head in their hands like they’re watching an episode of Doctor Who as a child then don’t knock them or talk condescendingly to them. That’s their choice and their right not only as a human being but as a Pompey fan.
If and when the fortunes on the pitch turn around - the fans will sing. The better the results the more fans will be willing to pay an over inflated price to watch a team who’s currently struggling for form and results. The stats don’t lie. But don’t ever suggest that fans need to learn songs before a game. Pompey fans wherever they are in the country will always be able to belt out at least a Play Up Pompey, Pompey Play Up home or away in support of the team they love.
