Orient - Bringers of Misery

Jobi McAnuff celebrates his stunning winner.

Over half-time during Saturday's 1-0 loss to Leyton Orient, I jumped down a few rows to have a quick chat with my Dad, who had mistakenly bought seats next to where my season tickets were last year. We both lamented how miserable the first 45 minutes had been, before he unearthed a deeply hidden memory of mine.

"Do you remember when we played Orient in the Cup, about fifteen years ago?"

Perhaps since the passing of those years, I don't remember it with any clarity. My feeling when I reflect back on that experience is more a symphony of dismal pessimism washing over the stands. A sense of frustration and anger that a team with decent players, including Robert Prosinecki in his twilight encore year, could be exposed with such simplicity by Leyton Orient.

Perhaps thankfully, few images of the game exist.

As a nine year-old boy at the time, you could say that such an experience is something of a Pompey rite of passage. To experience something utterly turgid is all part of the fun, and undeniably makes the peaks of football fandom feel an awful lot loftier. At that age, however, it's a moment akin to the unmasking of Father Christmas - the ultimate realisation that your football team can and will perform embarrassingly.

In case this hasn't jogged your memory - Leyton Orient, of the fourth-tier, came to Fratton Park and beat second-tier Portsmouth 4-1.

"I seem to remember we scored an own goal that day," I pondered.

I was wrong - Orient's Dean Smith opened the scoring with an OG.

"Yeah, and Kawaguchi came and apologised to the fans after the game. He did a lap of dishonour..."

There's always been the temptation to scapegoat. After the cup-drubbing, Kawaguchi received much of the flack for his reluctant starring role in the subjugation. However, his story isn't as simple as being the target of ire, suffering the consequential axe and leaving behind a shudder-inducing reputation. Despite his flaws, the fans admired Kawaguchi's upbeat attitude, as he vowed to work hard in training and retain his place in the squad. This made him something of a cult-hero at Fratton Park.

Kawaguchi's attitude transcended his shortcomings as a 'keeper.

Fans are very receptive of the players' work-rate, and there is at least a semblance of self-scrutiny when it comes to the boo-boys. Benjani's efforts in front of goal were admirable, but initially comical. Nevertheless, he received perhaps the most vocal support of all during Pompey's 2006 Great Escape, which eventually paid dividends with his outstanding goalscoring form a couple of years later. More recently, there has been an understanding that Kyle Bennett needs the fans' support to remain confident; an understanding which has helped to improve Bennett's form.

It is telling, therefore, that the fans didn't hold back in displaying their anger at yesterday's performance.

Chaplin looked feisty, but headed over Pompey's best chance.

"We were sat about here, weren't we?" Dad enquired.

"I think so. Yeah, I seem to remember watching the own goal from here. Blimey, I forgot just how dreadful that was."

"Hopefully it'll be a bit less dreadful today."

However, Orient delivered another 90 minutes of abject toil for Pompey. Cut to ribbons at the back, toothless going forward, and lacking any real intensity; 1-0 ended up a flattering result from the home side's perspective. It would be reactionary and unhelpful to suggest the result has any significance in Portsmouth's fight for promotion, but the performance itself suggests some deep issues that will require swift resolution lest the optimism seep away.

Newly-signed Michael Smith had a fruitless day in front of goal.

Much has been made of manager Paul Cook's tetchy post-match interview on Express FM, but the significance of this is relatively small in the grander picture. A smart brain like his can identify the issues within his team, and there's no benefit to his communicating this directly to the media. Sir Alex Ferguson knew this when persistently blaming referees - issues of poor performance, lack of effort and disorganisation are all problems to be dealt with internally.

Fifteen years on, the misery emanating from an Orient defeat almost feels like a twisted parody. Faith should not slip away so easily though, and if there's anything to hold onto, it is that unlike that dreary cup tie under the doomed stewardship of Graham Rix, we haven't been knocked out of the League just yet.

10 Years On - The Redknapp Retrospective

On This Day - Redknapp returned to Portsmouth in 2005

December 7th 2005: Harry Redknapp causes a South Coast earthquake, resigning from his role as Southampton boss to retake the reins at his former club Portsmouth. Although this was one of the most dramatic tales of the season, it would be impossible to envisage the impact it would have on Pompey. The fallout of Redknapp's decision fundamentally changed the course of history for the club. His reputation with the fans remains as characteristically divisive as ever, but a decade after his second appointment, just how does Redknapp's stature deserve to stand on the blue corner of Hampshire?

There number of different reactions within the Portsmouth stands was equivalent to the amount of voices belting out a pre-match 'Play Up Pompey'. Some were enraged. Some recognised the talent he brought with him. Some were suspicious of his motives. But even the most irate supporter recognised that Portsmouth stood a much better chance of avoiding relegation with Redknapp at the helm, following turgid performances from a calamitous mish-mash of a squad put together by Frenchman Alain Perrin. 

Redknapp patched things up with chairman Milan Mandaric

And so it was that Portsmouth achieved the impossible by battling to safety, although there are a few foreboding footnotes to add to this early Redknapp accomplishment. Russian businessman Sacha Gaydamak became co-owner and injected a hefty amount of money into the club in January, allowing Redknapp to spend £11.6m to bolster Portsmouth's paltry squad (not an enormous amount of money in the modern context, but for a relegation-bound side ten years ago, this was significant).

The gamble paid off, and this inspired Gaydamak, who soon assumed full control of the club from Milan Mandaric, and Redknapp to set their sights higher and spend more money on improving the team. Though transfer fees were kept relatively humble in the build-up to the 2006-2007 season (£3.5m for Niko Kranjcar was Portsmouth's top spend), it is understood that ample wages paid to the likes of Kanu and Sol Campbell began to change the dynamic of how the club was operating financially.

Nevertheless, the football undoubtedly became some of the best in Portsmouth's modern history. Fans were left purring by the tremendously solid back five, including the acrobatic athleticism of goalkeeper David  James, and were being treated to Kanu's sedately silky skills up front. Victories over Liverpool and Manchester United permeated a joyful campaign which was a cat's whisker away from bringing European football to Fratton Park for the first time in the club's history. 

Campbell and James brought international quality to Pompey.

At this point, things were probably running in a reasonable fashion. Money was being invested, but not to an overtly irresponsible degree. Transfer fees were low, wages were rising, but the players being signed were of fantastic reputation and quality, ensuring that the financial input was matched proportionately to on-field success. Redknapp's contribution was to ensure that a side of good players was producing the best football possible, and there was no doubt that he was achieving this.

However, after the 2006-2007 season, starry-eyed ambition took hold and things began to get out of hand. It may have been more prudent to give the squad another season of careful investment to see how things played out, but instead Gaydamak looked to capitalise on the club's upswing by investing heavily in both fees and wages. £24m was spent on new signings, including £6m for David Nugent and £7m for John Utaka, none of which was recuperated by any sales. 

Gaydamak (left) was rumoured to be plundering his father's fortune.

Considering Portsmouth's stature, this was never going to be a sustainable strategy. Fratton Park's 20,000 capacity would never offset the money spent, and although Redknapp was undoubtedly a talented manager, it is unclear quite how much success this team would have required to make this move financially sustainable.

It's depressing to talk about a manager's contribution with such a heavy emphasis on the financial impact of every season, but because we know how the story ends, it's impossible to ignore. Without the ultimate collapse of Portsmouth, these transfers could simply be seen as the clever squad strengthening that allowed for the club's first FA Cup in nearly 70 years. Instead, it is evidence of the foundations being laid for the complete dismantling of Pompey.

The fateful crescendo of Portsmouth's Premier League era.

The 2008 FA Cup win, propelled into reality by the quality of Redknapp's acquisitions, was perhaps the straw that broke the financial camel's back. Many of the subsequent reports of Portsmouth's demise cites the enormous bonuses paid to the players on the back of this trophy as one of the major factors. At the time, there were no murmurings of disaster afoot, and fans were in dreamland. By this point, most had forgiven Redknapp for his brief transgression across the county.

It's hard to know exactly when Redknapp became aware of the Portsmouth's crumbling reserves. It could be suggested that he knew things would be scaled back when he sold fan-favourite Benjani to fund Jermain Defoe's move to Portsmouth, but this belies the £9m he spent on Peter Crouch six months later. It certainly seems likely that Redknapp knew it was a good idea to jump ship to Tottenham early in the 2008-2009 season, as he had previously resisted the allure of Newcastle when they approached.

Redknapp joined Tottenham less than that 3 years after his 'second coming'.

His second departure disappointed fans again, and thrust the majority opinion of him back towards ambivalence. Just a few days after leaving Portsmouth, he accepted the freedom of the city for the team's FA Cup heroics. Some at the ceremony booed, but it seemed that most fans had begun to look at his tenure objectively, detaching themselves from any real emotive opinion of the man himself.

This arguably changed over the coming months when the true jeopardy of the financial plight began to grip the club. Gaydamak's outlandish, horrendous judgement of his own cash situation sparked the fateful succession of dodgy, dishonest and sometimes non-existent owners. There was a lot more antipathy towards Redknapp when Portsmouth met Tottenham in their unlikely FA Cup Semi-Final encounter at the end of the 2009-2010, with some feeling that his inept handling of the club's finances led to the crisis.

How much blame should be rightfully apportioned to Redknapp?

While it is a tempting prospect to pin the blame on Redknapp for the club's catastrophic money troubles, the evidence for this doesn't stack up. Gaydamak made it very clear that he was happy to run the club at a loss, doing so from the get-go and making suggestions that he was able to fund this out of his pocket. It wasn't unusual either - most clubs were operating at a loss during this period, well before financial fair-play rules were even considered.

Fans, and perhaps Harry Redknapp, were under the belief that Portsmouth had a small-scale Abramovich pumping undiminishable funds into the team. Further to this, chief executive Peter Storrie was handling a lot of negotiations. Some argue that Redknapp was probably demanding that these players were signed at any cost, but it seems unlikely that men like Storrie and Gaydamak would have run themselves into financial ruin on the say-so of the manager. 

Gaydamak's liberal spending racked up a reported £60m of debt.

Portsmouth shocked Tottenham in the FA Cup Semi-Final by winning 2-0, offering closure on the Redknapp story which ultimately defined the club's Premier League stay. The effects of Redknapp's spending are still being felt, as the club looks to recover from the string of unavoidable relegations that occurred almost incidentally as the fans looked to salvage the tattered remains of the finances.

It's difficult to really summarise the feeling towards Redknapp from my own perspective. Some of the most memorable, wonderful moments as a Portsmouth fan were entirely down to his managerial prowess: Winning the FA Cup, Pedro Mendes scoring against Man City, watching Pompey in Europe. But he inarguably had a hand in the darkest period of the club's history, a time which nearly destroyed my interest in the sport for good. 

Supporting Pompey became about despising irresponsible men, as opposed to football.

So, perhaps just as we all felt immediately after his move to Tottenham, I don't think I can feel anything emotively towards him and what he did. I can only really see his work objectively, and my conclusion is that if it was inevitable that Gaydamak would plunge the club into the financial abyss, perhaps it was lucky that we had someone who could get a trophy out of it. I want to feel more grateful for that, but I think the seasons that followed truly have dampened my take on our Premier League period.

Things will be more special when we succeed as a result of the fans' stewardship of the club, that's for sure.

Pompey must avoid premature panic

McNulty foiled on another difficult Fratton afternoon.

It was another lacklustre 0-0 draw for Portsmouth on Sunday, in which visitors Wimbledon were a little more than comfortable holding on for a point. 'Bereft of ideas', 'lacking in ambition' and 'toothless up front' were just some of the thoughts rattling around Fratton Park at the final whistle. It would seem that a run of four games without a win, along with a perhaps more disconcerting streak of only one victory in nine home fixtures, is threatening to take the wheels off what seemed like an unstoppable cruise to promotion. 

Paul Cook's tetchy post-match interview following the side's 2-1 victory over Macclesfield in the FA Cup suggested at his own dissatisfaction with the team's recent run of form, as a gritty victory did nothing to prevent Cook from openly criticising the way Portsmouth played. Though Cook was much more upbeat following the Wimbledon result, suggesting that Pompey had some good patches in the game and are still growing as a unit, it is hard to imagine that the former Chesterfield boss isn't at least concerned by the team's torrid home form.

Paul Cook has struggled to find a winning home formula.

Despite the tribulations at home, Pompey's away form has been outstanding so far. With five wins out of eight away ties, and only one defeat, Pompey have worked their way up to fourth in the table. Nevertheless, there are understandable worries that such excellent away pedigree may not last all season, with the recent defeat to Notts County potentially signifying a change in travelling fortunes.

Beyond the results, there is also a feeling that some of the players who seemed to have brought a refreshing sense of aptitude, glitz and efficiency early on in the season have started to wear a little thin as Pompey have had to dig deeper. Kyle Bennett has been unfairly singled out as a player who, having shown limitless promise on his debut, has tumbled below the lofty expectations of the Fratton crowd. He is one example of a few creative players who have come in for flack in recent weeks, with Portsmouth's inability to conjure up chances considered the main issue to have blighted recent games.

Bennett responded to his critics, saying it wouldn't affect him.

Bennett was dropped to the bench for Sunday's game against Wimbledon as Cook opted for a tactical shake-up, employing the terrace-touted 4-4-2. The uninspiring display gave instant indications that this wouldn't suit Pompey, as players seemed unable to find space or move the ball around comfortably, seeming stuck to their positions. The wing-backs, including architect left-back Enda Stevens, were neglecting to move forward, and the central midfield duo of Doyle and Hollands looked afraid to pass the ball into space.

The late introduction of Bennett brought a miniature revitalisation to the game, with the substitute creating one of the best opportunities of the game with a pass through for McNulty. However, the full-time whistle was met with resounding boos from the Portsmouth fans who, 17 games into the season, are beginning to fear the promotion push may fall apart before Christmas.

Time to worry?

Expectations are especially high this season.

 

Is there a cause for panic? I think the boos, concerns and general negative feeling may be a little premature, and it worries me more that this could snowball into having an effect on the team. It's been very frustrating to watch Portsmouth struggle at home, but it's key to hold on to perspective in these situations. The squad is three months into the season having been rebuilt by Paul Cook - a task that, as we know from many experiences in the past five years, requires a lot of learning, hard work and, ultimately, tough results. While we all got carried away by our early season form, it's important we set those delusions aside for the reality that getting promoted won't be a cakewalk.

Yet after 17 games, we find ourselves in fourth place and just two points from automatic promotion. Let's compare that with Andy Awford's Portsmouth last season, who went through pretty much the same process as Cook's squad. At this point last season, Pompey were 13th place and already nine points shy of the promotion spots, having just come off the back of a 3-0 hammering at Plymouth. The two starts are worlds apart, and this ought to be recognised as a minor miracle in itself.

Portsmouth seem a world away from last season's struggles.

Paul Cook said in his post-match interview that 'medals aren't handed out in October or November', and it's an extremely salient point. To be in the mix is the most crucial thing to maintain, whether that's in first or in fourth. The teams at the head of the table will trade punches all through the winter, but a strong run of form in April and May is what tends to make the biggest difference. If Pompey are still fourth mid-Spring, they will fancy their chances to make a late surge into the top three.

Performances at home have been poor, and that cannot be ignored. It is worrying that our creative players are drawing blanks, moreso that this has been the case for over a month now. However, one of the most frustrating aspects of this is the fact that we know we can do better, and in a strange way we should find that comforting. We have high expectations because there's a part of us that knows we're watching players capable of winning the league, and we're absolutely right. Even falling well short of their potential, we're still only a victory away from being in a promotion place.

Sheringham's Stevenage stole an unlikely draw against Pompey.

However, there is doubtlessly a confidence problem in addition to Cook's persistent search for the winning formula. Perhaps if we'd sneaked a goal against Accrington, or hadn't conceded a late equaliser to Stevenage, we'd see a very different Pompey side at home right now. However, things haven't swung our way, and the players seem to lack a little bit of belief. One thing that certainly won't help is fuelling a sense of negativity around Fratton Park.

I've never been one for booing the home side, but I feel that the fans' animosity towards the team at the final whistle on Sunday was, while an understandable showing of disappointment with the performance, potentially damaging. These are players who need a little encouragement and support right now. Look at Kyle Bennett - a player who has noted publically the criticism he has taken from fans. His name was chanted as he came on, and he responded by playing the most incisive pass of the game almost instantly.

Confidence to pass ambitiously and move around the pitch seems to have dissipated.

We're right to have high expectations this year, but we must also show a great deal of patience. Paul Cook is an excellent manager, and Portsmouth are already incomparable with the side that fell flat last season. Though the players are having a tough time at the moment, there is little chance that a squad with such talent will continue to come up short, and there will be better results down the line. The only thing that has the potential to seriously derail the campaign is if panic starts to settle in, so as fans I feel we have to play our part in keeping things cool. There's a long way to go yet, and we're still very much in the hunt for those oh-so-agonisingly-desired automatic promotion spots. Let's not replace the Pompey Chimes with alarm bells just yet.

You are tearing us apart, debt!

Erik Huseklepp to Birmingham, Liam Lawrence to Cardiff, Stephen Henderson to West Ham, and now Hayden Mullins to Reading. Despite a resilient spirit, our Pompey team is being torn limb from limb, and now we lay desolate in the gutters of the Championship. We now have the choice - we can try to get up and fight our tormentor once more in what will almost certainly be a vain bid for glory. Or, we can cut our losses and plan a life away from this monstrosity.

The befuddling metaphor above (and I'm not trying to be condescending when I refer to it as befuddling; I don't really understand it) regard's what I see as Pompey's choice now. We are faced with a pretty dire situation - Pompey sit eight points adrift of safety and are being broken up into pieces by an administrator who is, surprisingly, doing his job effectively. We must now decide whether we shall continue to battle against relegation, or admit defeat and concentrate all efforts into keeping the club alive.

At the moment it seems we are hedging our bets a little, and that's not the right way to go about it. What started as a squad capable of dealing with the ten points deduction is being whittled down into a demoralised mess. However, loans are still being brought into the side (albeit they are probably wage-free) and some of the club's major earners continue to play for the team. It's difficult to speculate on what measures may have been taken to remove some of these players, but if we were truly concentrating on financial survival, every single one should have been attempted.

It may be that we are doing our best to tick both boxes. Whilst steps are being made towards saving the club, the administrator may not want to take truly radical approaches to the situation in the interests of the footballing aspect of the team. However the time for radical steps is now, and while I can see the argument for both a gun-ho bid for survival financially, and a fully concerted effort to keep the club in the division, I cannot see how it is beneficial to try and do both.

Let us first consider survival in the league. Probably a less desirable option with regards to the short-term future of the club, one could still argue that the money drawn in from being in the second tier of the football league would justify not loaning out key members of the squad. Increased attendances and advertising revenue could all be considered as vital for the future of the club, so relegation could possibly be seen as a bigger disaster financially than continuing to pay the wages of the players.

On the other hand, there is the option to make every possible decision that will benefit the club financially. Firstly, this should involve the attempt to sell each and every player on the club's books. If this is unsuccessful, then each player should be given the option to either play for free, or to dissolve their contract with immediate effect (for free) and pursue their playing career at other clubs. If all that fails, then the club may even resort to a simple refusal to pay their players. This could lead to legal battles, but one would question whether or not a former player of Pompey would feel comfortable filing a legal suit that would potentially see the death of the club.

In place of the broken squad should go the youth team, or even local players (or just fans - I'd fancy myself to score more than Dave Kitson at the moment) who are willing to play for the club for free. While this measure would inevitably lead to relegation (and possibly lower attendances, although the novelty of having a completely inexperienced team on the field might be a draw to begin with), it would make every possible step to ensure the club's survival. If it was successful, then the club could try and build themselves up from League One, and that wouldn't be a disaster. We've seen teams like Leeds, Norwich, Leicester and even... them come out of the third tier looking a lot healthier.

Personally, I think our decision has already been made. We're too far off of 21st place, too many players have gone and it would be far too much of a risk to put a real push into staying up this year. We must now sacrifice the rest of this season in a last ditch attempt to keep the club alive. It may not work, but we don't want to be ruing the fact that we kept players on the books for an unsuccessful shot at keeping the team in the league.

I've done this post in about a half-an-hour (I'm between lectures), so I'm not really sure if my sentiments are coherent on this one (I say that like I'm normally sure, but that's far from true). However, my general feeling is that I can accept League One. I can accept some awful performances and scorelines for the rest of the season. I can even tolerate a bit of embarrassment on April 7th. If there's even a thread of hope that we can keep the club in business, then I think it only makes sense to begrudgingly pull out all the stops to make it happen.

Survival Instincs

Winding-Up orders. Administration. Points deductions. Players being sold. HMRC. Non-existence. Kelvin Etuhu.

Just a number of things Portsmouth Football club has been threatened with over the past few weeks. It's been a frustrating, confusing and difficult time for anybody associated with the club, and I think everyone has been embittered so many times that they're starting to wonder if a fresh start would be the best option. Even if it meant a throw down to the lower divisions and a long steady rise back up, perhaps this would be Portsmouth most desirable ticket out of the dirge.

I have tried hard to gather my thoughts on this. I've begun following a myriad of excellent Portsmouth blogs that keep track of the situation tremendously well. I could never offer a summation as good as those that I have seen, but my pure feeling on the matter resides with my survival instincts. I want us to survive, by any means possible, and for that I defend my club when the case is perhaps indefensible.

As a business, there's little denying that Portsmouth Football Club is lucky to still be running, and seems to be heading inevitably towards a timely demise. They owe HMRC another £1.6m, and there are suggestions that the club are not running profitably enough to pay off their existing CVA. Any other company operating under such circumstances would be seen as a complete black hole and promptly shut down.

However, I want to call back to my recent article 'Death of a Football Club' (referring to Darlington). In it, I argued that football clubs aren't businesses. If you think they are, you aren't a football fan - sorry (I hope I didn't break that news to you harshly). A football club the size of Portsmouth is a necessity to the sport. You have a sizable fanbase of paying customers that will be totally disillusioned with the game if the club ceases to exist. You have an institute of footballing history that, should it be destroyed, would pose a permanent and serious question about the state of English football (consider that a club which won the FA Cup in 2008 should not exist four years later - what sort of thing would that suggest).

It could also capture the intrigue of investors. If they see a club with the potential profitability of Portsmouth Football Club going out of business, they may begin to think twice about plugging millions into the game. I think it will take a bigger domino to tumble in order for the big investors to pull out of football, but I'm certain Pompey's death will be worth more than just a glance from the men with the money.

All this is really saying is that there's many entities, some simply supporters and others major organisations in the sport, that will take a heavy blow from Pompey ceasing to be. You can argue that Portsmouth have to be taught a lesson and an example should be set for other clubs, but I must stress that these 'retribution' arguments get aimed at the wrong people. If Portsmouth Football Club dies, it's not the owners who turned Pompey into a financial catastrophe that will suffer. It's the fans. It's not the chief executives that allowed gross overspending who will bear the brunt of Pompey's demise. It'll be the employees of the club.

Of course FIFA and the FA need to make it as clear as a greenhouse that clubs have to operate in a financially stable manner. This is presumably what points deductions are for. However, I don't think a club folding teaches anyone anything, other than if you end up with the wrong owners, hard luck, that's the end of your football team.

This will all probably look self-centred and unreasonable to anyone who isn't a Portsmouth fan, but you must consider your own ties and passions to a football club. You will defend to the death that they are worthy of a place in existence, regardless of their previous actions and financial woes. I'm no different. There may even be some ridiculous people claiming that it's the fans fault in the first place. I'm not even joking there, I've been on websites where people have retorted "Well, you never protested when you were winning the FA Cup, so I have no sympathy for the fans. Let the club die."

Right. Two problems with that. 1. Nobody asked for your sympathy. 2. What the hell kind of fanbase would be protesting having just won the FA Cup? Nobody could have possibly known that Pompey were travelling headlong into disaster at that point. After all, practically every Premier League club was living beyond its means. The only difference with us was that Gaydamak's debts got called in, and that's when everything turned sour. I don't think you can blame fans purely on the fact that they aren't Nostradamuses and weren't able to fortell that there was a tremendous mismanagement occurring.

That's just a minor section of fans who have never had to worry about so much as a relegation fight though. When you go through these motions, not only do you appreciate the football itself more, but you realise that the strength and loyalty of a fanbase makes little difference in these situations. The problem is, and always has been, that fans have little control over the owners of their club. The only protection they have from their club being taken over by a nutcase is the FA's Fit and Proper Persons' Test. I'll allow you to consider whether or not you think this has been effective, but if you aren't sure here's a hint: We've had four sets of owners in a row who have allowed the financial chaos at Portsmouth Football Club to grow.

But yeah, I guess that's the fans' fault.

Bonnie Marko

Portsmouth 2-0 Watford


This fixture has always been a strange one for me. As much as I am devoted to Portsmouth, I do have a second allegiance in today's opposition. My Dad, a lifelong Watford fan, did just enough to brainwash me into being a laid-back Hornet, but not enough to ever convince me that my loyalties lie North of London. Mutually, we both decide that our ties are too strong in this game, and it's the only occasions on which we will sit in opposite ends of the ground. I was travelling with an enemy, and I did not want to be made humble.

The game itself was inconsistent, but enjoyable. It was rather like a log flume; you had some slow, trundling bits followed by some exciting bumps and splashes of drama. Despite the referee's best attempts to break up the flow of the match, I felt that Portsmouth, at times, played football with both effectiveness and aesthetics in mind, and passed the ball with a lot of promise.

Despite a couple of suspensions and injuries the team-sheet looked bravely attack-minded. Varney and Rocha were both out and Ward and Halford were serving a suspension, but that didn't stop us from having a watertight defence and a big diverse attacking line. With Futacs, Huseklepp, Lawrence and Kitson on the pitch, goals seemed likely.

The first half started off brightly for Pompey. They were confident playing the ball in and around the box, and had a few decent attempts from distance. It showed potential, but was one peg shy of being a goal-threat. Watford seemed to be devoid of response as our defence looked like it was coping nicely. Mokoena and Pearce were clearing away danger comfortably, and simply would not be beaten in the air. Meanwhile Ben Haim and Mattock were dealing with no real threat down the wings whatsoever.

Then the game suddenly began to drag as Portsmouth started to lose their ambition. About seven or eight times the ball found its way back to Stephen Henderson, who lumped the ball upfield every time which resulted in us relinquishing possession. It seemed as though our defence were unable to pass the ball forward, and kept playing it sideways or back to the goalkeeper. It wasn't so much a bit scrappy all of a sudden as just an ineffectual repetitive motion.

Things gradually picked up until the half-time whistle, with Kitson having a couple of shots on goal to keep Scott Loach firmly on, and off, his toes. Portsmouth's resurgence continued after the break with another few chances before Marko Futacs got a deserved goal. Lawrence's corners had been dangerous all game, and at last he managed to find the 6-foot-5 Hungarian, who poked a header past Loach to make it 1-0. It was the least Portsmouth deserved.

Watford showed little signs of response. For a side that had gone eight matches unbeaten, they seemed totally switched off and lacked the effort to justify the trip down the A3 an admittedly impressive number of Watford fans had made. They knocked the ball across the face of goal a couple of times, but in truth I can't remember Henderson having to make a proper save all match, and I think that would've continued if the game had been four days long. Instead, Watford seemed to be getting more and more frustrated, picking up a few bookings through some rash tackles.

Pretty soon Lawrence nodded home a second goal after Loach had his fingers stung by an almighty strike, but the Irish midfielder was ruled offside. Nonetheless, Pompey battled on hard, and the game was practically won when goalkeeper Scott Loach was sent-off for a confusing clash just outside the area involving him, Futacs and Mariappa. As far as I could tell, it looked like the three players just collided, so the sending off seemed rather harsh. However, various news outlets have made it unclear as to whether it was a foul or handball that was given, so it's really difficult to say whether or not the decision was fair until the replay is shown on television tonight.

I don't think it would've ultimately mattered though. Watford were poor, and within minutes Hayden Mullins stroked home the second with an excellent finish. His last goal was the winner in a fortuitous 3-2 win over Watford last season, and today he capped off a much more merited victory over the same side. Late on, Futacs had an effort from distance which was both sublime and powerful, but it crashed off the crossbar.

There were good performances all over the pitch for Portsmouth. Both Jason Pearce and Aaron Mokoena were as solid as diamond at the back. Liam Lawrence is a havoc machine, but my favourite today was Marko Futacs. The big man is a powerhouse in every sense of the word (minus the 'house' bit). He blasted his way past players and did everything to thunder his way to the ball before anyone else. He knows exactly how to use his size and strength to his advantage, and I'm pretty excited to see how he'll do over the coming weeks.

I think there's many things we can take from today's game as positives. For one, our squad appears to have the depth to cope with a few injuries, which hasn't been the case for a long time. Furthermore, our resilience at home is continuing with results against the form teams, showing no match is holding points out of our reach. Appleton has continued the trend set by Whittingham and Gray, and has arguably advanced on it, with the team striding confidently and relegation fading ever further into the distance.

It was a lovely win and a game to savour. My only annoyance today was with the club. Somehow I had tickets for seats that were already taken by two young lads who had half-season tickets for the same spot. Consequently I had to sit somewhere else in the stand, which is not a disaster but it is a bit annoying when you've booked somewhere specific.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Marko Futacs
VILLAIN OF THE MATCH: Carl Dickinson

Stop! We Want To Get Off!

Ahh, for a moment I thought we’d reached stability. Reassuringly, it’s today been revealed that Portsmouth’s parent company CSI has been declared insolvent and has gone into administration. Thank Christ, I thought we’d found someone who was fit to provide boring financial security.

The implications for this afternoon’s revelation are unclear. Whilst Portsmouth themselves are ‘not in administration’, the only funds we can be definite about are for the very non-specific ‘short-term’. That could be the next three days for all we know, so the situation could again be absolutely dire. This seems especially likely when you consider the very downbeat tone of the club's official statement.

On top of that, the FA may well be docking Portsmouth points, as their rules indicate that the insolvency of parent companies can lead to the penalties of the club. Already in a relegation fight, this would be a sturdy iron blow to an already depleted and somewhat deflated squad, and one that our money troubles will only exacerbate.

Supporters can only ask how this has happened again. Since their FA Cup triumph in 2008, Portsmouth have been passing through fiscal travesties relentlessly, and every ‘new horizon’ has proved to be further murky waters ready and willing to suck the club into the mire and drown it.

Sacha Gaydamak, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, Ali Al-Faraj and now Vladimir Antonov have all proven to be walking (yet sometimes invisible) disasters for the club. It beggars belief really. The FA’s ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test seems to be a completely phantom process. If it had any sort of effectiveness, at least one of the above names would have been prevented from running the club.

It truly is a disgrace. Sorry, but I’m going to keep this point going. The FA has the balls to threaten clubs with the deduction of points if their owners or parent companies go into administration, and yet can’t be arsed when it comes to actually preventing these people from being involved in football in the first place. The consequences of that are now subject of a beautiful summation at Portsmouth.

Worst could come to worst here. With the club statement itself projecting a gloomy outlook on the future, a grim pessimism is possibly the wisest prediction. If Portsmouth Football Club - champions of England in 1949 and 1950, and winners of the FA Cup in 1939 and 2008 – go out of business, then the FA have tragically failed at maintaining an iconic part of the English football picture.

Being a Pompey fan has been a difficult experience over the past three seasons. It’s been a stream of terms that no football supporter likes to hear: ‘insolvency’, ‘administration’, ‘the end is nigh’, ‘Carl Dickinson’. Really, all I want is to get out of this tedious and potentially fatal roundabout, and it’s clear we need help with that from a governing body. We need someone to put us directly in the hands of someone who is interested in the team and wants to provide financial composure.

I hold out hope things will get better, as I always do, but Pompey fans have been punched into the ground so often that it’s no longer easy to conjure up the spirit that embodied our terrific fanbase. One possible subdued ray of light could come in the form of Balram Chainrai. Perhaps the only man in the last five years who offered any degree of steadiness in his time as owner, Balram will presumably be owed money by Portsmouth still, and may be able to assume control of the club. He was never particularly bothered by the club, but he did keep us alive and we have to give him credit for that.

Again though, it’s complicated and we can’t know for sure that he’ll come to our rescue again. All we can be certain of is that, once more, we need a miracle.

Deja Who?

Here we go again…

Ahh, there’s nothing more comforting than the assurance that every few years Pompey fans have at least one managerial merry-go-round to look forward to. Steve Cotterill’s oddly sideways departure from Portsmouth to Nottingham Forest has once again left that hotseat vacant, and it’s time to find a new occupier.

The names that have been linked with us so far have been very encouraging. Dave Jones, Sean O’Driscoll, Karl Robinson… not the usual plethora of iffy and potentially disastrous names that seem to pepper the odds lists for this situation. However these are just rumours. There’s nothing stopping someone like Barry Fry sneaking (well, waddling) into the job, so we have to tiptoe around being too presumptuous yet.

But let’s look at the current favourites. Dave Jones is someone who has a very impressive track record at second-tier level. He has a bit of experience in getting sides to the Premier League, and he has worked in a variety of circumstances and situations. Putting to one side his connections with the club-whom-shall-not-be-mentioned, he would be an ideal choice as someone who can keep the ship steady and slowly build towards making Portsmouth into a possible candidate for promotion.

The only trouble is whether or not Dave Jones would be interested. Certainly Portsmouth is a good place to be as a manager, save for the lack of a substantial transfer kitty. However, you do get the sense that if Jones was to hold on for a bit, he could get a job where the potential of the club could be more immediately reached. It’s definitely possible that Jones won’t quite be ready to jump for this one.

What about Sean O’Driscoll? He’s definitely someone with a very credible background and would again be ideal for the club. Albeit he maybe lacks much experience, he has still shown his credentials through success at both Bournemouth and Doncaster, where he achieved promotions for each. He’s clearly a manager with good potential and someone we can rely on for decent results.

I see O’Driscoll as a more likely appointment due to the fact that he would probably require lower wages, and in honesty would probably be more willing to manage Portsmouth. He’s never had a club with the stature that Pompey possess, and furthermore he’s already worked on the South Coast through his position at Bournemouth (and yes, that is a big factor – encouraging people to move to Portsmouth is no mean feat).

I’m going to ignore the fact that Alan McLoughlin is the next manager on the odds list. I like him as a person, a radio presenter, a player. But I’d be very worried if this was the direction we went through. I’m not saying he couldn’t do the job (although his match commentary would sometimes lead you to this conclusion), but to give someone with no managerial experience the job would be a risk and a sad indictment on the direction we are taking.

So moving beyond him, next we have a few decent names. Aidy Boothroyd, Steve Coppell, Alan Curbishley, Brian Laws, Billy Davies. All seem like decent shouts, although I’d perhaps suggest that Curbishley has been out of management for a bit too long now. In either case, the point I’m making is that it’s very reassuring that the signs coming out of the club are that we want to keep pressing forwards, and if that involves spending money, so be it.

I’m still unsatisfied by the relative silence of the owners at this point, but there have been indications that things are running smoothly in the background and that the finances are in nowhere near such dire straits as during the Chainrai period. However, whilst there’s little being said from the men behind the scenes, the inklings of worry continue and David Lampitt alone is not going to quell that.

Perhaps an ambitious choice of manager will. If we get Dave Jones, then it’s a bit of evidence that there’s enough in the way of structure at the club that it’s attractive to good managers. That alone is worth something.

An Introduction

It makes sense for the first post to lay a few things out. Presumably one of the four people that visit this blog will want to know what exactly this idiot is playing at, so perhaps a little background would be a good start.

Well, to start with I'm a student at Roehampton University. I'm hoping to break into the competitive world of sports journalism, and this little blog here is just an outlet to fire some of my ideas for articles about. I'm writing for the monthly newspaper at the university at the moment, but I love to write. I love to write about football. I love to write about Formula One. I love to write about anything that makes me tick, and having an allowance of once article a month is like asking Alan Shearer to score one goal a season. He'd barely contain himself.

So here we are, a blog where I can fire off articles when I want.

For the most part, I'd imagine I'll be posting football articles. It's been one of my biggest passions in life as long as I can remember, and I follow the game as avidly as possible. I'm a Portsmouth supporter, so as far as the emotions of the game are concerned, I've just about been through them all. I've seen my club lift a trophy, and then had to seriously contemplate the possibility of there being no club to support. Ups and downs really are part of life at Fratton Park, so I think rather like someone who's been through a near-death experience, we all have a profound appreciation of football that perhaps fans of 'bigger' clubs don't. Not to say that we're better than them. Alright, I'm kind of saying that. Sorry. No actually, I'm not sorry. Deal with it. That's too much actually. Apologies.

I had a season ticket for all but one of the Premier League years, and before you shout 'bandwagon jumper', I still attend games now we're in the Championship, but my living arrangements make a season ticket implausible. I've seen some amazing games at Fratton Park. Who could forget that wonderful 4-1 thrashing of our rivals Southampton? Or the oh-so-close 2-2 draw with AC Milan that was nearly one of the great European upsets? Or even that manic goal-fest against Reading which ended 7-4? I saw them all, but without having those miserable days, such as our 4-1 defeat to Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, they would mean nothing. It really is the struggle that makes the glory days so much sweeter.

Outside of Pompey though, I'm just a big admirer of the game.

Formula One is my other big sport. I sort of lazily put on a few races at first, and then one of my friends who really loved it got me into it properly. 2004 was when I really started enjoying it, and I became a big fan of Jenson Button. It seemed like he was quietly dragging round this awful BAR and getting results way out of its limits. I was sure this guy was one of the best drivers on the grid, and I couldn't understand why people kept telling me he'd never win a race.

Lo and behold, he did in 2006. Then Lewis Hamilton came along and made an impact beyond anything imaginable in F1. I quickly became a big fan of him as well, and I distinctly remember going a bit mental when he won the title in 2008. Meanwhile, Jenson had faded into the background, and it was disappointing because he was still my favourite. It looked like he'd be without a drive for 2009 when Honda went out of business, but Ross Brawn saved the team and he did the unthinkable by becoming world champion. I was over the moon.

Nowadays I watch every race I can. 

Finally, I do love the odd opinion piece. I became very interested in politics in the run-up to the general election, but now that it's just all about how the Tories are ruining everything, it's just a miserly, depressing sort of interest to have. Still, it's nice to write a reasoned piece on political issues, devoid of the usual mega-left versus mega-right insult-sagas that follow anything involving the economy, immigration or religion.

Besides that, I'm a philosophy student, so I do like to think about the big issues in life. Like when are they gonna get rid of that irritating little meerkat on that advert? Or if a tree falls in the woods and there's no-one around to hear it, why did Wagner not win the X Factor? Y'know. Deep stuff.

OK, that's enough of that. I'm gonna follow this up with an article I already did for the University newspaper, so it doesn't look like this blog is 100% talking about myself. Nice talking to both of you who visited. Goodbye.