Damage Limitation - A review of Portsmouth's 2010/11 season

This season could have been a continuation of utter freefall for Pompey, or even a discontinuation of the club itself. However, manager Steve Cotterill and chairman Balram Chainrai did their best to attach a bungee rope to the club on its way down to the Championship, and Portsmouth were lucky enough to stop just before smacking their face on the hard cold ground of a second consecutive relegation.

The story of Pompey's 2010/11 campaign has been largely based on how much could be made of the smallest squad in the league. Beginning with the financial turmoil that followed the club after their FA Cup triumph in 2008, every year since has been a battle to retrieve the players already unfortunate enough to be in the paybooks of the club. So with the mass exodus that inevitably occurs following a relegation from the top tier, Pompey fans were contemplating the very distinct possibility that the club could be hit with another disastrous season followed by a further drop in league.

The hiring of Steve Cotterill after Avram Grant resigned was a key moment. It's not so apparent, but Cotterill has done a magnificent job in stabilising the club to keep them out of harms way for the whole season. With practically no resources at his disposal, a very limited opportunity to sign players and a squad low on form and morale, it was imperative that he was shrewd, tactically astute and motivating.

His first big move was to sign two players with a Premier League pedigree, favouring quality over quantity in what was a risky move. The arrivals of Dave Kitson and Liam Lawrence took time to inspire the team, as Pompey went through their first eight league ties without a victory. It seemed like the early predictions of impending doom were starting to reign true. However everything changed on the back of the extraordinary 6-1 win over Leicester in September.

Suddenly it had all fallen into place for Cotterill. The defence wasn't playing well, but the team seemed to be scoring goals, and it was enough to fire them to five victories in their next six games, shooting them up the table and putting them in a position that led to a few people daring to suggest the play-offs weren't out of reach. The general consensus amongst the fans was, however, that the team wasn't actually playing that well, but a certain amount of Premier League quality in the players that Pompey had managed to retain - Players like Nugent, Utaka and Mullins - was giving them the edge that would see them safe.

After this stretch of form, Portsmouth began to settle into a rhythm, albeit a sporadic and inconsistent one. It is also at this point that I must confess I didn't find the time to attend many games at all after New Years. So while the first part of this review was taken from a purely 'fan-in-the-stands' perspective, the reality of the next part is that it's an outside observer's opinion.

Despite our unpredictable form, the hopes of a possible play-off place started to mount, and it seemed like people where perhaps getting ahead of themselves. With such a small squad, the likelihood was always that Pompey were going to burn themselves out towards the end of the season, and despite the loan signings of impressive young players like Ritchie De Laet and Jonathan Hogg, burnt out is what we were come Spring. Despite this, one of the undoubted highlights of the season was a miraculous run of form, in which Pompey managed six wins and six clean sheets on the trot. It was a testament to the strides of improvement the defence had been making during the season, and showed that the team was developing a lot of character and spirit.

All the while though, Cotterill seemed to have attained a rather irritating habit of criticising the referee during every post-match interview. As the season went on, his complaints grew more frustrated and ludicrous. It's hard to say whether or not he was justified in his grievances just by gleaning a feel from highlights, but I'm highly dubious that there is any conspiracy amongst referees concerning Portsmouth Football Club. I'm pretty certain Cotterill would have done more good into talking about the players' match performances.

Also off the field, there were rumours of possible takeover bids being made. This wasn't particularly surprising, given Balram Chainrai is not interested in owning the club at all, but the signs of interest were encouraging. It signalled that Portsmouth was a viable business opportunity for somebody out there, and perhaps that the dark times were soon to be a true thing of the past. The issue is yet to be resolved, but it must be said that Chainrai is due credit from the fans. He would have been blameless if he'd let the club go into insolvency, but he's kept Portsmouth alive and is looking to put us in good hands. At one point there was a rumour that Gaddafi's son was interested (the one who's now dead). If Chainrai wanted a firesale, we could have been in the hands of a tyrannical murderer (who would've easily passed the Fit and Proper Persons Test, no doubt).

In the end, Pompey finished 16th. It's not a season that most teams would see as a success, but for Cotterill and his team, it was mission accomplished. The goal was to survive, and that was done with many games to spare. Without question, nothing more could have been asked of the side.

It was so important that we got through the year without a disaster, allowing us to get through this transitional phase for Portsmouth Football Club. Now that we are stabilised, we can look ahead to securing our position and starting to plan how we'll move up the table. The future's not exactly bright, but there is at least a future to look forward to.

To finish, here's my seasonal awards:

Player of the Season: Jamie Ashdown - The patience he's had during his time at the club was certainly rewarded this season, and Ashdown delivered some heroic and spectacular performances. He made a few mistakes during the season, but nothing that couldn't be forgiven for considering his excellent form

Young Player of the Season: Joel Ward - Has probably played in just about every position this season, but he's shown a firm sense of commitment in every role and has done well to settle into the first-team so quickly.

Worst Player of the Season: Carl Dickinson - He definitely improved towards the end of the season, but I have tremendous doubts about his ability as a footballer. Furthermore, his red card at Doncaster was one of the most reckless and poor tackles I've seen.

Game of the Season (only counting those which I attended): Portsmouth 3-2 Watford - A very entertaining game that we probably didn't deserve to win. I liked this mostly because my Dad was in the away end, so it was nice to get the bragging rights on the journey back.

Worst Game of the Season: QPR 2-0 Portsmouth - That was my first away game, and while the experience itself was great, the game was a drab one, featuring a lacklustre QPR side that just had enough in its engine to take victory.

Spooky Coincidence of the Season: Floodlight Failures during Portsmouth 2-2 Leeds - This was a bit weird considering the exact same thing happened the last time the two sides met in the league. And it's not like it's a regular occurrence at Fratton Park either - the last time we met Leeds was in 2003, and there hasn't been a floodlight failure since. Weird, innit?

Fan Shout of the Season: A blind kid near me shouted "I'm the blind one lino, not you". It's a nice clever line, but considering that the linesman probably wasn't aware the fan was blind, it probably seemed to him like a lovely bit of self-deprecatory encouragement.

Goal of the Season: Mullins vs Watford - Super 30-yarder that the TV cameras missed.

Transfer Deal of the Season: Liam Lawrence - He was exactly what we needed. A man who knew how to link the midfield to the attack, and wasn't afraid to try and create chances. He had a huge positive impact on the team.

Wish for next season: Cotterill to stop moaning.

That's about all for now then. Come back for my full season review of like, everything in the football... stuff. When it's finished, I mean. The year.

Better than di Resta

The young Scot has settled into F1 magnificently

So the new season is underway. Vettel is still near-impossible to beat, Schumacher is still struggling, Hispania are still baffling people by continuing to live, and Eddie Jordan is still spouting absolute drivel each race. Some things in F1 don't change.

But luckily, there's always a plethora of new drivers to talk about and rather unfairly judge at this early stage of the season. I say plethora - I mean four. Four new drivers to discuss - Paul di Resta, Jerome D'Ambrosio, Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado. Still, that's enough opportunity to be cruelly downbeat on the careers of a few young lads, isn't it?

Well actually, it is very difficult to make calls at such an early stage, especially when certain cars haven't been performing. The jury is still out on Maldonado and D'Ambrosio, due to the woeful Williams and Virgin cars not giving either of them a chance to shine. Perez on the other hand has benefitted from a decent Sauber. He's looked a good counterpart for the exciting Kobayashi, mostly thanks to his excellent (but discounted) fifth place finish in Australia courtesy of some magical tyre management. It'd seem apparent that he has a future in Formula One, but perhaps one not as bright as Paul di Resta's.

There's already an odd sense of familiarity about Paul di Resta's presence in Formula One. While British attention is highly focussed on the world-champion pairing of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton at the front of the grid, we've all also been aware of young di Resta starting his career in a very solid fashion. He's scored points in two out of his three races, and finished ahead of his team-mate Adrian Sutil in two out of his three races.

And yet there's no surprise or great hype about the ability di Resta has shown so far. I think perhaps we were expecting him to do well, having been introduced to him quite thoroughly during BBC's coverage over the last season, but when we take a step back to consider how he's done, it's quite a remarkable beginning for him.

The best way to illustrate just how well di Resta has done is by comparison. Adrian Sutil, for example, is undoubtedly a very competent driver who now has a fair wealth of experience under his belt. Over the last few years he's driven a less-than-impressive Force India to its absolute limit, with one particular highlight being his extraordinary drive at Monaco in 2008 which saw him up to fourth, before Kimi Raikkonen ploughed into the back of the blameless German forcing him to retire. Last season, Sutil practically carried the Force India team to 7th place in the Constructors Championship, scoring 47 points along the way. In short, he's no mug.

And yet di Resta has settled into the car spectacularly to beat him on two occasions. That is by no means an achievement that should be overlooked - few drivers are confident enough to finish ahead of their far more experienced team-mate within the first set of races, and those that do inevitably blossom into a talent worthy of great things.

Not only this, Paul di Resta comes across as a well-rounded, confident young man. This is essential for him, because the Force India car is not good enough to give him the opportunity of points-finishes every race. He needs to be strong in order to make the best of what he gets, which is where Jenson Button went wrong during those two turgid years for Honda, and where Lewis Hamilton struggled when the car wasn't up to scratch in 2009. Going through that learning-curve could one day mould him into an effective challenger for a title - somebody who would be skilled in the craft of damage limitation.

It's quite ambitious to talk about di Resta as a prospective Championship challenger, but the early potential he's shown is promising. Champions like Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel all begun their careers by making the best of bad cars, grinding out results where they could. Paul is doing just that at the moment, and whilst it's too early to make a call on just how far his career could take him, these early signs are nothing but encouraging.

Already there are rumours that di Resta could replace Schumacher at Mercedes if Schumi retires. Clearly the insiders of F1 also see that the young Scot is somebody who can go places in the sport. Here's hoping that the millennium's third British champion is already on the grid.