Pompey

Flagging Interest in the FIFA World Cup 2026

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, is scheduled to be hosted by the Canada, Mexico and the USA.  A second cross-border tournament, first successfully undertaken with the South Korea-Japan tournament of 2002, will present some wonderful memories for those Pompey fans who will travel to support England. Group match tickets, starting at $60, are being allocated through a world-wide lottery.  Final tickets start at $2,030 a piece.  Getting into games may well be an exercise in who you know, or meet on your travels. 

Many of us watching England on the box will also take part in the age-old parlour game of spotting the various St George’s flags from around the country.  It is always cheering to see a Pompey flag in the array of England flags ringing a foreign field.  Spotting Pompey flags at non-England matches during a major tournament gains extra points, by the way. 

Noting names of other clubs and towns on English flags is another side-show, particularly when full backs and centre backs are trading side-passes in the stifling heat of a New World summer. For example, one that caught my eye was Workington, stitched into a flag prominently displayed for the group qualifying match in Tirana, in mid-November.  

Workington AFC, located thirty-five miles south-west of Carlisle, on the Whitehaven coast, would have been a challenging away trip for any lower division team, after the club was elected to the Football League Division Three – North, replacing New Brighton in 1951.  Workington lasted in the Football League until 1976/77, when after winning just four matches that season, it was replaced by Wimbledon FC.  The club made little impression on the Football League, (apart from being a step on the way to Anfield for Bill Shankly and the launch pad for goalkeeper John Burridge’s 798 professional game career), but Workington’s supporters are still proud to support the English national side.

In a club versus country debate, my loyalties have always put Pompey first, then I’ll follow any international side that features Pompey players, past or present.  This permits me some leeway when watching a major tournament, but this year, it will be 60 years since HM Queen Elizabeth II presented Bobby Moore with the Jules Rimet Trophy at Wembley.  That steamy July day in 1966, is one of which I hold some clear memories.  My dad had bought a new black & white television, on which he watched the match with a work friend, while I was left to follow events on the older TV set in the back room.

I distinctly recall Hurst’s header, Peters sweeping the ball home for England’s second and then Geoff Hurst’s thumping third that settled the match beyond all doubt, ensuring that there would be no replay had West Germany equalised again.

Of the controversy about the ball which did not cross the line, or the scrambled 90th minute West German equaliser, I cannot not recall.  I do remember by first brother wandering away bored from the TV, and going up to his room during the match to play with the Lego.  At the time I questioned his commitment to the beautiful game.   If he couldn’t sit through a World Cup Final, how would he ever be a proper football fan, I wondered. He had celebrated his fifth birthday a couple of weeks previously, old enough for school, so old enough to know about football, I reckoned, already being a world-weary six-and-a-half-year-old myself.

Geoff Hurst is still my hero for his three goals in 1966, but it was twenty-one-year-old Alan Ball, who ran the show that day. If you watch a recording of the match, you will see the player, who was to become a famous Pompey manager, run non-stop for the team that World Cup Final day.  He was a vital cog in Alf Ramsey’s ‘Wingless Wonders’ winning formation.  No Pompey fan watching in ’66 could have dreamt that the little guy wearing the No 7 for England would be the man to steer Pompey up to the top Division for the first time in twenty-eight years.

Here’s a game of imagination for you to try, while watching the FIFA tournament whittle forty-eight teams down to the final two, consider who of all the players you see, see if you can spot one who one day may become a member of the Pompey family.

~

The Seven Stages of An International Career
All the world cup’s a pitch And all the men and women merely players

They have their appearances and their substitutions

And one man in his career plays many parts

His games being in several parts.  At first the debutant

In awe of his team-mates, who know the score

And then the unused substitute skipping and stretching

Shining with enthusiasm, trying to catch the coach’s eye To get on the pitch,

And then the player, Growling like a lion, during the national anthem

Sung with patriotic passion.  Then a hardened pro

Full of feints and moves, making the killer pass

United in loyalty, sudden and quick in a challenge

Seeking the winner’s reputation

Even in time added on for stoppages. And then the coach

In fair round belly with peaked cap on With eyes severe and beard of formal cut

Full of wise tactics and modern formations

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the sad and slipper’d panel pundit

With spectacles on nose and on the couch, side on;

His too young clothes, well sav’d, the screen too wide

For his shrunk name and his big manly voice

Turning again toward petty gripes 

Complaints of VAR and referees’ 

Unfair whistles.  Last game of all 

That ends this strange, eventful career

Is with child-like enthusiasm and mere oblivion

Sans shirt, sans club, avec memories et medals.

 ~

(with apologies to W Shakespeare)

~

n.b. This article was first published in a Portsmouth match day programme, details tba.

Chris Perry

02/05/2026

Lights Out

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Do you travel to Pompey matches by train?  Are you old enough to remember walking over the footbridge at Fratton station, turning to your left and looking for Fratton Park, marked for nearly 60 years by four classic floodlight pylons?

For many fans using the footbridge, looking for the floodlights was a ritual, even on non-match days.  The floodlight pylons marked our spiritual home, our Mecca.  The removal of the pylons had huge symbolic significance for many.  Not least, reminding us that nothing stays the same, but also that our new owners were not going to let our ground fester.

Despite the best efforts of fan ownership, Fratton Park was fast becoming a liability, with crumbling staircases, rusting beams and shaky foundations, if there were any foundations at all at the Milton End.  Removing the floodlight pylons also eliminated a major workplace hazard.

I had often looked up the ladder of the pylon that stood at the western end of the North Terrace in awe of the height of the structure.  Who would be the person charged with climbing all the way up there to change a light bulb, I wondered.

With Portsmouth being a nautical city, there once would have been plenty of capable deck hands, experienced at clambering up the rigging and out over a spar to reef the sails in a storm, but not recently.  It would take some nerve climbing up the floodlight towers, above the concrete terrace, whatever the weather.  Before the Millennium Tower was completed, only a few, those living in the tallest tower blocks on the island, would have the privilege of enjoying such a dramatic perspective of Portsmouth, as the person charged with lightbulb replacement.

The floodlight pylons were installed during 1962 to replace lights situated on the roof of each stand. The new lights were funded by members of the Portsmouth Central Supporters Club and as such, the new structures were a dramatic symbol of Pompey fans’ commitment to their team, a commitment that was put to the ultimate test during the later financial collapse of the club.

Mark Caitlin, when CEO here, was taken aback by the many expressions of dismay that the pylons were going to be taken down.  Those pylons marked our home and in this topographically challenged city, they were something for us all to look up to.  As a result, at significant expense, a lone pylon was removed by PMC Construction and set up in a corner of the club carpark.  It still stands there, naked of any lights, a bare steel frame, looking a little forlorn, with nothing yet to acknowledge the emotional attachment that it, with its three siblings, held for so many Pompey fans. 

Originally floodlights had run along the top of Pompey’s two Leitch Stands. They would have not looked much dissimilar to the current pitch lighting arrangements.  Apparently, the original lights had a dramatic power failure during a match with Sparta of Rotterdam, that was being played to test whether professional football was practical under lights, before Fratton Park hosted the first ever Football League floodlit game against Newcastle United in 1956.

As we gathered with Millwall fans last season in excited anticipation of a keenly-awaited contest, we too suffered a power failure that meant everyone had to be sent home. This provided visiting Millwall fans the chance to sing how poor Pompey must be because, “…Southampton’s got lights!”

It was an embarrassing evening for the club, but one not of its making.  A sub-station feeding into Fratton Park, operated by the local electricity company blew up and all the frantic work of the stadium management staff to overcome the power outage was to no avail. With the return of our fierce rivals from Bermondsey, (their fourth trip here since 13th August 2024), please pay a thought for the stadium maintenance team whose work at Fratton Park is dedicated to ensuring we have a safe, well-lit and comfortable ground this afternoon, where we can watch the whole illuminated match uninterrupted.

~

Lighting Up
 
All the clocks have been changed
Winter gales are rolling in
By ten past four the Sun will be gone
Time to switch the floodlights on
 
Visible from Bognor Regis and from Ryde
Those floodlights call us back home again
Engine driver, ferry captain
Please make sure we're there on time
 
Cross the footbridge at Fratton station
Look left and see the bright white glow
Pompey and Millwall are at it again
Fingers crossed these lights won’t blow
 
There’s something special about floodlit games
The pitch is greener, the faces shine
The players shirts are much more vibrant
Our club songs shake this proud island
 
It’s a Saturday, close to three o’clock
The Fratton crowd is ready now
Soon the whistle will be blown
Time to get the football on

~

n.b. This article was first published in the Portsmouth FC v Millwall FC match programme on 22nd November, 2025.

Chris Perry

30th May 2026

The Non-Attenders

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

“There is nothing like football is there?  Nothing can make you feel every emotion like a football match.”  Kevin Maybe.

Portsmouth is the most densely populated city in the United Kingdom.  The latest data calculated the population to be 208,100.   As a seated stadium, the largest crowd here was in 2009 versus Spurs when 20,821 pitched up.  That equates to about 10% of the total island city population, although many Pompey fans don’t live in the city.  When Pompey played Derby in the FA Cup in 1951, the crowd was more than 20%, one-in-five of the city’s residents.  Imagine!  Every fifth person in the city going to Fratton Park. It is hard to believe that possible.

I knew a man who proudly told me he was there in 1951, although I am more impressed now if someone boasts of being in the crowd of 1,200 versus Bristol Rovers in the 2016 EFL Trophy match, which was Pompey’s smallest crowd since 1946.

Have you ever wondered about the 90% of the city’s people who don’t go to Pompey matches?  What are they doing?  Up at the QA on Portsdown Hill, there are some wards that overlook the city from which the lights of Fratton Park are clearly visible.  Up there, patients are able to listen to Pompey’s home matches on the QA Hospital Radio via the Pompey Audio Description commentary service.

This service was initially set up in the 2015/16 season in partnership with the Portsmouth Disabled Supporters Association to bring match commentary to partially sighted Pompey fans at Fratton Park, but has now been wired into the QA Hospital Radio service.  Why not just listen to the BBC Radio Solent service, you might ask?  Well many patients may do, but the Audio Description service commentators are specifically trained to describe the action non-stop, with the asides and chat saved for pre-match and half-time, so that listeners know exactly what is happening, as it happens.  It is detailed commentary, focusing precisely on where the ball is and what the players are doing.

A couple of the original Pompey AD commentators are now working for national radio and other TV stations, as the current dedicated team certainly could be, given the great service they provide to their listeners.

Besides Pompey fans too unwell to attend, there are a large number of people in Portsmouth who are freed up to enjoy a bit of personal space, while one, or more of their household is down at ‘The Park.’  My grandmother would settle into an armchair with a cuppa and watch the wrestling on ITV during Saturday afternoons, while my grandfather was at football.  Some people go down to Gunwharf Quays, (or Gunwharf Queues as I call it), for some shopping, meaning many people have to be there working too, to take their money.  

Some people of nervous disposition cannot go to games due to the anxiety a Pompey game can bring on.  My grandfather’s doctor told him to stop going to games because his heart was no longer up to the strain, which sadly turned out to be true, although he was spared watching Pompey ever playing in Division 4, which was a blessing of sorts.

In Nick Hornby’s first book Fever Pitch, he writes of his dream of buying a house next to Highbury, which came true due to the sales success of his book. As a result he could just pop out the door to watch his beloved Arsenal, but then they moved to a new stadium down the road, but not too far.  I wonder how many of Pompey’s neighbours have achieved the local equivalent, fulfilling a lifetime’s ambition by living next door to Fratton Park?

For other neighbours, matchdays might be the worst day of the fortnight.  What with the crowds roaring, parking restrictions, police horse dung in the street, match days might be days to go off the island and walk on the Downs, or the beach at The Witterings, although from both you can still see the glow of the lights (as you can from the Bognor Regis prom).  In the 1940s and 50s, some of the neighbours used to charge 6d to look after the bicycles of fans, so making a bit of pocket money from the gathering throng.

A poem by Rebecca Loveday, captures the excitement and anxiety of watching Pompey hang onto a one-nil lead against Leeds United, as the final minutes are played out.  Early leavers may just be following doctor’s orders, but for many, this is when the drama and sheer joy of attending is most keenly felt, which is exactly why they are here in the first place.

~

n.b. This article, with Rebecca Loveday’s poem, was first published in the Portsmouth FC v Wrexham FC match programme on 5th November, 2026.

Chris Perry

29/05/2026

 

South Stand Tea Hut

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Football on Boxing Day is one of the nation’s favourite fixtures.  To have a home match is particularly satisfying, but frankly, any Boxing Day match is to be savoured. 

I was once a regular on the South Terrace, Milton Enclosure, before it was re-fashioned into the seating it is today. The South Terrace was a cold, draughty, but dry place.  Close enough to the pitch to be able to smell the cut grass, the turf and players’ embrocation.  The ball would frequently end up cannoning around this patch of terrace and it would sometimes be followed by a player who had slid off the pitch, across the orange tartan track and over the retaining wall onto the concrete.  Players on the field could also clearly hear the expert tactical advice on offer from the enclosure and would sometimes respond directly verbally or more often using hand signals.

At the back of the enclosure, wedged underneath the Leitch commissioned steelwork, was a tea hut. It looked like a garden shed from B&Q and was staffed by a lady called Joyce Tynan. She worked alone, which meant that a massive queue for beverages would develop at half-time. This queue then merged with the queue for the toilets beside her hut. On more than one occasion, I found myself following the wrong painfully slow procession, when I actually wanted a tea not a pee.

Eventually, my friend, Dave and I agreed to take turns from match to match to nip along just before half-time to get our drinks order in early.  Neither of us minded taking on the task, because it was possible to still see some of the pitch from the tea hut counter. As well as being able to keep alert to the action, it meant having a chance to have a brief chat with Joyce, who was always good natured, however poorly Pompey might be playing.  Joyce had served teas at Fratton Park for many seasons and along with the senior turnstile operator, who definitely remembered Pompey’s glory years, they were two people who would always brighten any visit to PO4.

I also remember a limited option of chocolate bars at extraordinary prices being available from Joyce’s tea hut, so not many of those were bought.  I used to always check the date of these slow selling products to make sure they were at least fresh that season.

Besides the steaming urn and plastic cups of coffee, Bovril, or tea options, there was a glass cabinet for keeping pies warm.  After the match, with the hut locked up, unsold pies were left on the counter to take away for free to stop them going to waste. 

Having beaten the half-time queue, Dave or I would be back on the terrace in double-quick time, where we could gingerly sip the boiling hot drink, sometimes having a brief chat with Touchline Tony, as he took a break from stadium announcements, to dissect with us what had gone right or wrong in the first 45 minutes.

Joyce at the tea hut was a lovely woman with an impossible job.  Towards the end of her time at Fratton Park, Joyce did get an assistant, a student, who I think was simply bemused by what was expected, as waiting times did not get any shorter. Thankfully, things around Fratton Park have changed for the better.

Unlike professional rugby and non-league football, it is illegal to drink alcohol while watching a men’s professional football match, so it has been a priority for the club to ensure all catering facilities are totally out of sight of the pitch, which allows Pompey to sell alcoholic beverages throughout the match, for those who enjoy, or need, a pint at the football. 

Sadly, Joyce is no longer with us, but the club is able to offer many more part-time job opportunities on match days than was previously the case, emphasising the contribution Pompey makes to the local economy. The hospitality and catering team, led by Kayleigh Young, have a challenging job in that football stadia are only opened to fans on match days, whenever they may be, whether weeks apart, or three times in eight days. Getting the food and drink stocks for each game on such an irregular basis is a bit of a gamble, which explains in part why a limited choice of food and drink is available. It is not easy getting the stock levels right for perishable products under such circumstances. Look in the Victory Bar after a win and it will be buzzing, but after a defeat, even with a full house at the game, there can be more staff than customers, as supporters head for home. As ever, success on the pitch is a big factor in how well the club does in all aspects of the operation.

After a traditional Christmas lunch, eating is the last thing on your mind, or you may have been saving yourself to tuck into a hospitality meal at Fratton Park today. Whichever it is, I hope that Pompey and QPR can provide a cracker of a match and Pompey can put the icing on the cake with a win this Boxing Day. Happy Christmas.

n.b. A version of this article was published in the Pompey v QPR match day programme on Boxing Day, 2025.

Chris Perry

25th May 2026

 

Some Foreign Field

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment 
Roads and streets unfamiliar
Filled with grey drawn faces
That peer down at tipsy slabs underfoot
Coats pulled tight to tucked in chins
Fists pushed deep into pockets
Stooped figures limping toward the electric-white glow
Pale shadows struggle to keep up
With these sad shufflers
Wrapt in hopeful talk.
The same battered cars line kerbs
Bumpers kissing
Litter blown by stiff north-easterly draughts
Sticks carelessly to railings
Ice in rain fills holes in the cold breeze
Pricks pins in my face
Grey sky adopts a gloomy shade
Their stadium leans in on itself
Perpetually introvert
Morose
Its pointless activity
Steals any joy
From coming dawns
Scarves and shirts in reds and whites
Accents more rural than this dockland setting
Suggest spaces more green
Less concrete
Than this
This is far from our home
Where blue skies shine
Brilliant sun parades
Strong enough to make eyes squint
When we wake
It warms our blood
Calls us to play
Unfettered by fear of failure
At night the star and crescent
Heaven's light
Our guide.
This is their place
I leave them
Happy
To be miserable

CLP 27/10/2018

Wasted at Centre-Back?

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Pompey at Peterborough Sept 2018

Pompey fans ever grateful that Ipswich Town gave us Matt Clarke

Spotland, 29th September 2018. In the 81st minute Matt Clarke wins the initial header from a corner on the right. As Rochdale try to clear Clarke roughs up the player trying to play the ball out of the penalty area; he nutmegs the next closest defender then smashes the ball with his left boot across the flailing arms of the flinching home goalkeeper into the top of the goal. 3-1 and Pompey go back to the top of League One and continue their unbeaten league run.

You can see that it was a wonderful goal here on the official Pompey website. It displays the strength, skill and power of Clarke and it was celebrated wildly. It was a special goal and what made it even more special was that Clarke is a centre back, but it was not a standard centre back goal – it was a goal any footballer would be proud to score.

Despite having his right nostril stuffed with cotton wool after another facial injury, Clarke had just delivered a Worldy. There is something thrilling about seeing a central defender score a goal taken from Robert Prosinecki’s playbook of magic tricks.

BBC Radio Solent featured a lot of chat about central defenders before the Rochdale match. The talk was about the resilience needed to be a centre back. Central defenders need not be crazy like a goal-keeper, but they have to be tough; physically and mentally. What the discussion left out was the importance of centre backs scoring goals and how this lifts them beyond cult status to heroes.

Fans get a real buzz when a central defender scores a goal like Clarke’s. Headed goals from corners and free kicks, or toe-pokes from inside the six yard box are all okay. We all know the big men should get a few of those and it is part of the job description. The fun starts when the No 5, or No 6 does something out of the ordinary.

I saw all of Andy Awford’s goals for Pompey. In 313 games for the club Awfs scored at Watford, another at West Bromwich Albion and finally at home to Sheffield United. A one club man, Awford was a footballing No 6 who was not as physically imposing as traditional centre backs. After playing quietly and effectively in that position for years, he was moved into a defensive midfield role, but I always saw him as a centre back and I enjoyed his hat-trick of goals all the more for that.

Awford’s first career goal for Pompey was a right footed effort in open play from the left edge of the box in a lively 2-1 win at Vicarage Road in 1995. His goal at The Hawthorns in 1999 was particularly special because in a previous appearance at WBA he had suffered a terrible four-part leg break, so this was a revenge goal. His last goal against the Blades in a 1-0 win was a wonderful moment because it meant Awford had finally found the net at Fratton Park after first playing for Pompey over 10 seasons before.

These three goals from Awford were celebrated gleefully because they were so rare. He hit a hot streak in 1999 with his 2nd and 3rd goals coming in one calendar year, even though they were spread over two league seasons.

In his first period as manager at Fratton Park, Jim Smith had settled on a central defensive pair of Andy Awford and Kit Symons. These two were close in age and they quickly developed an understanding of the job each had to do in defence. Both were ball players, but Symons grasped soonest that scoring an occasional goal would also help his career. He scored 11 times in 204 appearances before Manchester City paid £1.2m for his services.

If you have half an hour to spare have a look at the goal Symons lashed in against Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United in 1993. Don’t be put off by the start of the video, it interviews top of the league Geordies setting off on the coach to Fratton Park for a Tuesday night sold-out match. When the football action starts it is very entertaining and The Legend plays an absolute blinder in the second half. The Symons’ goal comes up around 13 minutes into the video. For those new to the club just have a look at the state of the “stadium” – Fratton Park is a palace today by comparison.

Although from a corner, Kit Symons’ goal that night was a right footed blaster into the top of the goal from about 10 yards after he had dropped back to get some space. As the ball came his way he adjusted his balance and waited for the ball to come to him before making perfect contact – had he missed the target there would have been injuries in the Milton Lane End. Pompey won 2-0 late in the 92/93 season.

The other Symons’ goal I vividly remember was scored when Pompey were struggling to beat relegation in 1995. Away wins were not common, so a trip to Burnley in late April with snow on the Pennines was not an enticing prospect. Pompey were playing a lot of disjointed football that season. Terry Fenwick’s knowledge and experience of international football was taking a while to get through to the squad and entertainment wasn’t part of the mix. Pompey needed to win.

I had only decided to drive up to Burnley on the morning of the match. I jumped into the family Peugeot 106 and set off up the M1 and M6 to the middle of Lancashire. Blackburn is a long way, Burnley is even further and this was before the motorway network extended that far.

I knew that I had arrived in Burnley because every petrol station, shop and public building was painted claret and blue. Is it a false memory that the zebra crossings were as well? I parked by the cricket field right next to the ground and after being stopped to be interviewed by a reporter from BBC Radio Solent, (“Do you think Pompey can win this crucial game?” “Yes.”) I went for fish and chips.

I then ended up in a WMC & Social club near the ground recommended by two members of the Northern Blues. It was 5p to get in – entry prices had been held at a shilling ever since decimalisation in 1971. Beer and cider was cheap and the bar was heaving with claret and blue shirts, but they welcomed we three Pompey fans. The Burnley fans were confident of a win.

That year 4 teams were to be relegated from the second tier as the Premier League began to apply its evil grip on the winter game. If Pompey won then they would be safe and Burnley would be unable to escape, yet in the bar all was good humoured.

In a crowd of 10,666, Pompey fans were placed on the cricket ground end of the long, covered western terrace.  Separated by steel fencing from the home supporters, we had plenty of space to dance around when John Durnin put away a first half Pompey penalty. At half-time we were 1-0 up and freezing cold. And then, as the game resumed and was becoming quite tense as Burnley pressed for an equaliser, Symons made his mark.

Collecting the ball in the Pompey half Symons set off at the flat Burnley defence who had pushed up to try and keep Pompey pinned back. He passed the ball to his left and charged on to meet the first-time wall pass from Deon Burton who was stood on the left touch line exactly on half-way. The return pass put Symons clear. The number 5 galloped on, Burnley defenders lagging behind, Marlon Beresford came off his line towards his gangly opponent.

Symons simply shimmied like a Welsh rugby winger, went to the keeper’s left and shot the ball at an angle into the empty net. Pompey 2-0 up and even after Burnley got a goal late on, the Clarets were well beaten. Symons’ solo goal came at a crucial moment in a critical fixture and it showed that the best centre backs are not just capable of keeping the opposition at bay, they can be complete footballers.

Of course there have been many other excellent goals by centre backs for Pompey. Dejan Stevanovic’s free kick versus Birmingham and Jack Whatmough’s goal at Carlisle spring to mind, but those who saw the Symons’ goal at Burnley and the Rochdale match clincher by Matt Clarke know they saw something special.

N.B. An excellent website to visit for Pompey player and match statistics is www.pompeyrama.com where I checked some of the details for this piece.

CLP  30/09/2018

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

fullsizeoutput_e13

Do you really love Pompey?

There is a Pompey fan who refuses to eat Walker’s crisps. This policy, well-known amongst Northern Blues, was reported in Steve Bone’s Sports Mail column a couple of weeks ago, so you may need a pinch of salt, but it seems plausible. It is an example of how football impacts on daily life. For this most loyal Pompey fan no simple flavour choices at the bar, but the need to know who makes the product. The reason he decided this goes back to the early 1990s when Pompey played possibly the most entertaining football they had ever done before or since.

It was the year after the penalty debacle at Villa Park in the FA Cup semi-final replay with Liverpool. Darren Anderton’s career was in free fall after his transfer to Spurs and a career playing for England beckoning, when Jim Smith took Pompey on tour wowing the nation with flowing football and goals, goals, goals. Yet we won nothing and here we find the root of our fellow Blue’s decision to shun Walker’s crisps.

Walker’s had sponsored Leicester City since 1986 and it was Leicester who dumped Pompey out of the First Division play-offs in 1993. It was a controversial result. The twelve men of Leicester completely outfoxed Pompey in the match at Fratton Park. Jim Smith had failed to spot that Leicester had a numerical advantage in the second leg. This meant Pompey only had eleven men on the pitch at any one time. It was a huge tactical error that Jim and his coaching staff regret to this day. To be fair not all the Leicester players were in yellow that night, as Roger Milford was a late pick and had to play in all black. And he came tooled up; he carried a whistle.

This Pompey fan did not cut Walker’s crisps from his life in a fit of pique as he is a fair man. If Pompey ever get beaten “fair and square” this man will be the first to say those very words. Sadly over the years he has had to say those very words far too often. No,  this decision has been thought through and a personal sacrifice has been made to mark the injustices of 19th May 1993.  In a manner that Gandhi would approve, this particular fan denies himself one of life’s pleasures in order to carry a beacon to mark that injustice.

You can see why he made his decision on this You Tube link Pompey vs Leicester 1993 Travesty

Before Steve Bone’s article, this modest personal crusade was known by only a few. Our hero quietly committed to this policy and has sustained it in pubs, clubs and bars throughout the football world. Not for him “Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please?” but “Two pints of lager and can you tell me what brand of crisps you’ve got, please?” Quite a mouthful, but a phrase he has trained himself to say word perfect at every opportunity.

Now the cat is out of the bag all Pompey fans will look differently at crisp choices.  When a prophet walks amongst us we learn. Comparing yourself with a prophet can often result in self-loathing and bitter regret that sworn commitment to Pompey has only ever been skin deep. Yes, count the grounds you have been to, wear the shirt, stay for the whole match, don’t miss a game for years on end, but is your love for Pompey constant? Do you really love Pompey and do you walk the true path? Well, if you haven’t given up Walker’s crisps you need to have a word with yourself.

However, brothers and sisters redemption is at hand. If you ever fall into temptation,  are taken by the hand of the beast that is PepsiCo and led to eat Walker’s crisps, you can save yourself one packet at a time. You can earn forgiveness for your weakness of faith by one simple action. How is this done? Just send the packet back to Leicester free of charge.

Walker’s say that by 2025 no plastic will be used in its packs, but in that time, at a rate of 11 million packets a day, tons of landfill waste will have been produced. More information can be found here People Are Posting Their Non-Recyclable Crisp Packets Back To … 

To show you really love Pompey give Walker’s the hurry up and help persuade them to change crisp packaging. Use the Walker’s free postal service address and save your Pompey soul. Every pack you send back will ensure that the injustices of 19th May 1993 will not be forgotten.

FREEPOST LE4 918. Leicester LE4 5ZY

Send back any pack without charge. All you need is a bit of sticky tape, a pen and a bit of paper to write the address* on and post it back to the city of Leicester.

*In an update from Royal Mail you are asked to use and envelope. This is the privatised service that was run by the Scot, Alan Crozier, who used to run the Premier League, so you decide BBC Leicester.

Alternatively you could follow the humble lead from the North and just stop buying Walker’s products.

Remember 19/05/93 – Say “No” to Walker’s

CLP 23/09/2018CLP

The Real Football Fan Show, really?

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

There’s always the Off switch, thankfully

Got home late last night and saw that I had a choice, Family Guy reruns or a programme called ‘The Real Football Fan Show.” I waited in anticipation for the RFFS to begin.

Before it started the Channel 4 announcer warns that the show includes “adult language”; if only that were true. I imagined we might see West Ham and Chelsea fans exchanging opinions on where their respective club owners’ money originated, (pornography and Putin’s mafia mate) and dissecting the ethical challenges that provokes for the ICF and Headhunters. I wondered if we might see Arsenal and Spurs fans arranging a fight on Wembley Way on derby day while White Hart Lane is out of commission. The show included neither.

The programme started with a review of last weekend’s Premier League action. This was done by getting post-match soundbites from fans exiting grounds after the matches. This sounded promising.

I enjoyed hearing Spurs fans tear Pochettino’s tactics and formation apart. Always top quality moaning from those boys, but I was shocked any were to be found after the match near the stadium, as they usually leave Wembley early.

A good-natured Geordie showed genuine delight at having seen a late consolation goal against Arsenal. Someone wearing a Chelsea shirt said something meaningless. I waited in eager anticipation to see Scummers being interviewed after the 2-2 with the Seagulls.

Another disappointment in a programme of disappointments. The producer clearly couldn’t find anyone bothered to go to the south coast fixture, but then who was? It might have made the show to get a rant from a fan who had seen only two home wins in 2018 and just stormed from the ground after his or her team blew a 2-0 lead. Too much to ask of a TV channel without access to any footage of any PL action.

Then a bit of fan banter, “Which team do you hate the most?” Watford fans are clearly missing Luton’s company and struggled to name alternatives. Chelsea got several mentions from a few people, but why waste time asking Arsenal or Tottenham fans? I want to know who Bournemouth fans really hate. Is hate possible at Dean Court? Is the rumour true about Wimbourne Town because they have neater flower displays in the square than at Boscombe?

The star player interviewed was Troy Deeney, a man worth hearing out given his talent at setting about his opponents on the pitch and in post-match interviews.

A short rough edit of the chat with the programme host just showed glimpses of the man. We found out he loves winding up the Villa because he is a Birmingham fan (and possibly because AVFC let him go after being their youth team captain). He eyes lit up at the memory of scoring three times against Villa in one season season. Deeney likes watching football with his mates and hearing different opinions about the game. He comes across as someone un-phased by the Premier League theatre.

Unfortunately, in a programme designed for late night viewing and an assumption that the viewers have short attention spans, that interview was far too brief. Why did the production team waste precious seconds with the interviewer asking for advice on how to get his own weight down? Troy Deeney politely swerved that potential minefield when I might have said “How long have you got?”

The programme promises banter, but as it only includes Premier League fans in current kit, the banter is on the same level as anyone who finds the word “bottom” worth a giggle. It didn’t even get as high as that when a Spurs fan was asked if he would dare go out with the woman next to him in the Chelsea shirt just after he had said Chelsea were his pet hate.

The next studio shot showed the girl had moved to the end of the terrace. I prayed a sudden parting of the “crowd” would open up space for a proper row between these two, but truth be told she was too tall to stand stage centre and had been blocking the timid Fulham fan’s face from camera. C4 can’t be seen to exclude minority groups and probably feared fiercely scripted letters from Putney about discrimination, so they moved the girl. It is a football programme afterall and old attitudes don’t change overnight. Could they not have just passed the Cottager over the heads to the pitchside instead?

The studio set up is so off the mark I wonder if the set designer has actually been into a PL ground. There were no seats, just a faux terrace and some very shiney people in very shiney football shirts. So all standing, no disabled section and everyone has a club shirt on and we know Geordies don’t do shirts, of any kind, (their stripes are all tattooed on to save the laundry bills).

I switched off when a presenter wearing a badly fitting dress, (filmed from a height to show how badly fitting it was at the front), was about to embark into the crowd outside Stamford Bridge to ask something I couldn’t wait to hear.

Sadly Family Guy had finished, so I went to bed.

CLP 22/09/2018

Vince – The Vince Hilaire Autobiography Released

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Vince Hilaire was £85,000 and worth every penny

Many, many Pompey fans will want this book that came out in July 2018.

It has a lot about Vince Hilaire’s time at Pompey with the amazing squad that played for Alan Ball. Never has the Pompey team been so in tune with the character of Pompey supporters. We were a complete unit on the road and at home. What Bally achieved and how is a big part of this book.

It also gives an insight to the racism and bigotry Vince Hilaire faced during his career. This guy was an absolutely fantastic footballer who I could not believe ever joined Pompey. He was that good and he had some of his best playing years at Fratton Park. That he was such a winner despite the barriers he faced shows the strength of character of the man.

Vince Hilaire Pompey Hall of Fame Tribute here

More about the book from Backbite Publishing here

A must read!

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CLP 13/09/2018