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Hard Work Isn’t Always Enough

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

When playing cricket for Singleton in a mid-week, mid-summer evening friendly match against Langstone Wildfowlers, I found myself fielding at square leg next to Pompey’s former player and later to be First Team Coach, Andy Awford.  Andy was taking his turn as umpire, as happens in that sort of fixture.   Despite our having our respective foci on the cricket, chat between deliveries inevitably turned to Pompey.  I had seen all three of Awford’sPompey goals, which given he played 371 games for the club between 1988 and 2000, was somewhat fortunate.  

It took “Awfs” until April 1996 to score in a 2-1 away win at Watford, on what I recall was quite a tempestuous meeting of the two sets of fans.  He then took a breather for two seasons, before going on a run of two goals in two seasons, the only goal of the home win against Sheffield United in March 1999 and then again away, the following season in a 2-3 defeat at WBA.

Andy Awford was very young when he became a regular first team player at Pompey.  He had been signed from Worcester City as school boy, first playing for Pompey when still 16 years of age.

Not particularly tall for a centre-back, remarkably strong on his left foot, Awford paired up at the back with Kit Symons, in one of Pompey’s most exciting teams that I have seen here.  Under Jim Smith’s tutelage, Pompey went out of the FA Cup after a Semi-Final replay on penalties and then the following year, missed out on promotion to the Premier League having scored one fewer goals than West Ham United. 

A team total of 80 goals made following the Blues home and away, a joy.  The defence averaged one goal conceded per game, but with Guy Whittingham (46 league goals), Alan McLoughlin (12) Paul Walsh (10) and a total of fourteen players notching that season, Pompey never looked totally out a game.  Even with only nine men on the field at Sunderland, where a point would have been good enough to get promotion, or a 4-3 defeat would have been enough to get ahead of West Ham on goals scored, at 4-0 down, Pompey were magnificent.  As it turned out a 4-1 loss was the why Pompey ended up in the Play-offs, but what a day that was, as raucous and unyielding Pompey fans filled the Roker End. 

Pompey had gone to some trouble to sign the young Awford, who after his playing career, set to work as Academy Coach for the club.  In that role, he helped develop Adam Webster, Jack Whatmough, Conor Chaplin, Dan Butler, Ben Close and Alex Bass, amongst others.  From there, after a brief and vital period as First Team Coach, Andy Awford returned to Academy work, but with Luton Town, a club who have a consistently strong name in youth player development.

Every club in the world, the richest clubs most of all, are hunting for promising young players.  The biggest clubs can save a fortune by signing masses of youngsters, filtering through them and discarding many.  It is a cruel business.

Many young players have their dreams crushed at just 16 years of age, usually just before their GCSEs, when they are advised that they will not be offered a contract.  It is not just about wanting it more.  To get one exceptional player through the system, a club needs to have a squad of at least ten others in the age group to be able to put out a team for youth matches.

At the time I met Andy Awford, he was completing teacher training, but Pompey were to call again before too long.  I should have asked him, “What is the secret of developing young players?” Instead, we naturally reverted to talking Pompey and playing cricket that sunny evening.

Football is a tough business to break into. On paper, every young player has an equal chance of becoming a professional, but we all know that only a few complete that journey.  Of 1.5 million players in organised youth leagues in the UK at any one time, only about 180 of those will make it as a professional footballer.  That is a minimal success rate.

So, what should be the honest message to hopeful youth players at Pompey? Personally, I am not sure, but what I wish for each and every one of our young players is that they enjoy their time playing football at the club, make strong friendships and develop a love for the game that will last a lifetime. If one of them makes it into Pompey’s First Team Squad, all the better.

~

Chris Perry

4th June 2026

03/06/2026

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

 

Substitutes

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Being ‘On the Bench’ once simply meant being a magistrate.  As Micky Quinn infamously was reminded when being sent down for 21 days after being caught driving while disqualified twice in a month, magistrates have to dispense justice regardless of Pompey’s need for goals.  Alan Ball, Pompey’s then manager, was in court with Quinn and instructed his prize chump Centre-Forward to plead guilty and do his time.  Ball needed to know which games Quinn would miss, so he could be certain of his available squad and work out tactics accordingly until the Liverpudlian was released.

In football terms, being on the bench became a thing in England during 1965/66 when, the FA finally caught up with associations around the world, who had allowed subs since the 1950s.  It took another season for the men in blazers to allow tactical substitutions.  Being a substitute was not quite as good as being in the team, but at least the player selected for the role had a chance of being involved.  Sitting alongside the manager in the dug-out (a phrase taken from the military world) might be an opportunity to learn more of the manager’s thoughts, maybe get in his ear about how you might improve things, or just 90 minutes hoping someone might get injured enough to leave the field, or to be so totally out of sorts that you might get to kick the ball in anger.

Before the 1965/66 season, a serious injury to a player could turn a game. In the 1929 FA Cup Final, Pompey missed several chances to lead before Tommy Bell was reduced to a limping passenger out on the wing.  His knee injury let Bolton Wanderers into the game, which they won 2-0.  Again, injuries contributed to the outcome of the 1934 FA Cup Final, when an injury to Pompey’s Jimmy Allen, who left the field, led to Manchester City equalising and then grabbing a late winner. The Football Association stuck to its ways, regardless of the impact injuries could have on its showpiece event

Colin Garwood, Pompey’s mercurial goal scorer, sold to Aldershot after financial disagreement with Chairman John Deacon, was one of the first specialist substitutes.  A slight, but prolific striker, rather than a jack-of-all-trades to cover all possible options, Garwood could be used to sharpen up the team.  He was a goal-scorer, pure and simple.  He hated sitting watching the game and could not wait to get on the field to prove he should have been picked to start. 

One sunny afternoon, at home to Port Vale, released from the confines of the touchline by manager Jimmy Dickinson, Garwood scored a spectacular goal. Collecting a loose ball in the centre circle, he lobbed the Vale keeper, Trevor Dance, from forty yards to secure a 2-0 win.  He remembers that goal well, because he was so frustrated at only being picked as sub that afternoon.

Somehow, from a lone substitute, who would sprint along the touchline from time to time to save his legs from seizing up, we now have a wall of track-suited players jumping about, stretching, having a chat, lining the touchline for much of a game.  The move from three substitutes to a maximum of five chosen from nine on the bench in The Championship must be challenging for the players.

The number of substitutes now allowed gives unprecedented power to the team coach and rewards the clubs with the deepest pockets, who can afford to have top players sitting most of each game out. Being able to offer just the hope of playing on Saturday, rather than the high likelihood of getting a full game, has changed the dynamic between coach and players.  Now there is talk of ‘starters’ and ‘finishers’, to ensure all the players feel involved from kick-off.  A finisher used to be player like Guy Whittingham who scored lots of goals, not a player who gets to play for just half an hour, or less.

Nine on the bench also places greater pressure on the coach to ‘do something, do anything’ if things aren’t quite going to plan.  Spectators and owners demand more of the coach to intervene.  Players are increasingly seen as being disposable during a game and the substitutes are required to increase the intensity of the team’s performance.  I wonder whether this injection of higher pace and energy contributes to an increase in injuries, when players naturally tiring from being on the field from the start, come up against fresh, fired-up substitutes, not just one of them, but half the team.  Have we gone from substitutes only for injuries, to injuries because of too many substitutes?  One for the football statisticians to study.

~

The Number Twelve
 
I wandered lonely as a substitute
Waved to family in the crowd
Swapped brief banter with the fans
Joined in with clapping to warm my hands
 
When I see the trainer's run on
I jump up and sprint down the line
Hoping the pain is not too bad
Just enough to let me play
 
Monday to Friday is the hard work
Training is fun and the lads a good bunch
Lots of running and set play drills in the morning
Then off to play golf or to the pub for lunch
 
Being sub is better than not being involved
I’ll do what I can to impress the Gaffer
It’s the way it is, how the game’s evolved
But I want to play football, not just tread water
 
~

n.b. This article was first published in the Portsmouth v Ipswich Town match programme on 14th April, 2026.

Chris Perry

13/10/2025

 

Cup or League?

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Thank goodness we can put aside the stress and worry of battling for Championship points today and dare to dream of beating the mighty Arsenal.  Today, I want Pompey to roll up their sleeves and give everything to knocking the Gunners out of the competition.  I want every Pompey player to play with pride in the shirt and to relish the opportunity to stamp fresh glorious memories in the history books of our club.

How this day would stand out in our lives if we are victorious.  Imagine for a moment, being part of a heroic team that downed Arsenal in front of a packed, passionate Fratton Park.  Imagine how it would feel for us to be part of such a famous win, with our throats sore from singing Pompey to victory.  Think about the buzz we would have travelling home after such a win.  Ecstasy would barely describe the sensation.  I can envisage my cousin, Claire simply throwing her head back and laughing about today for many, many years to come, were we to triumph this afternoon.  Being a Pompey fan would be an even bigger badge of honour to carry than normal.

All I dream of when it is the FA Cup Third Round is of Pompey getting through to the fourth round.  We all know that Pompey winning the FA Cup for a third time is unlikely to happen this season, but it is not unreasonable to believe we can make it to the next round draw.  Was Pompey’s Wembley win in 2008 the best moment ever as a Pompey fan, or was it beating Spurs 2-0, two seasons later in the FA Cup semi-final?  Picking up the trophy in 2008 was good, but that win over Spurs fuelled by the roars of The Blue Army, was one of the greatest Pompey days of my life.

Other memorable Pompey FA Cup matches that spring to my mind are: beating Manchester United 1-0 in the 2008 Quarter-Final (which I only saw the second half of on a pub telly in Brighton); winning 3-2 at Division One Leeds United in 1977, when Pompey were in Division Two; the last-minute win, 1-0 at Championship side, Norwich in 2019, when Pompey were in League One.  Winning the FA Cup in 2008, comes a bit lower in the list, mainly because we were expected to win.

Of course, there is the B-side of Cup memories, the crushing disappointment of unexpected defeat.  Mention Leyton Orient to Pompey fans and they will groan out the name Kawaguchi, who had a nightmare in Pompey’s goal in January 2002.  Thinking about 2005, all I can recall is the dodgy penalty call against Matty Taylor, leading to a last-minute winner scored by Peter Crouch, as in 1990 when Ian Wright’s last-minute penalty for Crystal Palace away, totally ruined my birthday.

The FA Cup is not about the final game at Wembley.  The FA Cup is about giving every club in the country the chance to mix it for ninety minutes with any other club, however big or small.  It is about giving us all a brief burst of hope for just one afternoon in the middle of winter’s gloom.  With the FA’s abandonment of replays in all full rounds of the FA Cup, it could be argued that smaller clubs have a better chance of finding a way through, even if it is on penalties, so let us all get behind Pompey with hope in our hearts and give it our all.  Play up Pompey!

~

Pundits versus Fans

FANS: 
Oh, we’re on the way with Moushino’s Army
We’re on the way to Wem-ber-ley
We’ll really shake ‘em up
When we win the FA Cup
Because Pompey is The Greatest Football Team

PUNDITS:
Oh, it’s a big day for proud Pompey
It’s a day to forget the league
They haven’t got a hope
Unless they use rope a dope
Because Arsenal is by far the better team
FANS:
Wem-ber-ley, Wem-ber-ley
We’re the famous Portsmouth FC
And we’re on our way to Wem-ber-ley
PUNDITS:
Wem-ber-ley, Wem-ber-ley
Pompey should re-focus on the League
Pompey ought forget about Wem-ber-ley
FANS:
When Sol went up
To lift the FA Cup
We were there
We were there

~

n.b. This article was initially published in the Portsmouth FC v Arsenal match day programme on 11th January, 2026

Chris Perry

15th Dec 2025

Raise the Colours

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Here we are again, playing Leeds United, an original phoenix clubs, who rose from the ashes of the infamously financially dodgy Leeds City FC. 

Known as The Peacocks for decades after formation in 1919, Leeds United either took their nickname from The Peacock Inn across the street to Elland Road, or because of the garish combinations of old gold and blue shirts worn by the team from formation until 1962.  Now the white of Real Madrid is the club colour after Don Revie imposed it, with little whisper of fan protest, while yellow and blue (the city’s official colours) have become a staple part of United’s away kits.

Pompey fans know how important club colours are to our identity.  Witness the row about the short-lived red Emirates sponsorship of the Millennium Tower. We are vehement defenders of the royal blue shirts, white shorts kit, with our red socks (suggested by long-time Club President, Field Marshall Montgomery) a vital, un-substitutable element. Home kits are pretty much standard these days, but Away kits and Third kits are the marketing team’s dream.

Nostalgic and historic colour schemes often prove popular, not least last season’s salmon pink of Pompey’s 125th Anniversary tribute to our first ever team kit.  Club kit designers consider whether any prospective design will be worn by supporters as leisure wear, which explains why black is often used, ignoring the fact that, from a football perspective, that a team-mate in a dark shirt will be less easy to spot than one in bright blue, white or red.

Incidentally, red has been identified by some social scientists to be the shirt colour of teams that win the most sports trophies, but this theory is clearly nonsense given the history of football in Hampshire.

The worst away kit I have ever seen was Cardiff City’s 1972/73 away kit of lilac and primrose, first worn at Fratton Park in August 1972.  On a blistering afternoon, Cardiff’s players were squinting into the Sun as it began setting between the South Stand and Fratton End.  They had taken a first-half lead from a Derek Showers goal, but as the game and heat wore on, after a Pompey equaliser from Brian Lewis, Pompey were handed the lead in bizarre circumstances.  It was the 80th minute when Cardiff won a throw-in on the South Stand touchline, in their own half.  One of their players ran over insisting he take it, so caught the ball that had been thrown toward him by his team-mate.  Referee Harold Davey (a FIFA list referee of the time) immediately ruled that the catch was handball because the throw had been made in accordance with the laws of the game.  You can imagine the complaints from the men in lilac and primrose shirts at that decision.  From the free-kick Norman Piper put Pompey ahead, to the home crowd’s cheers and laughter.  A third Pompey goal via Richie Reynolds in the 89th minute made it a 3-1 win. 

Derek Showers remembers the awful kit and the game well.  Born in 1953, Derek had grown up knowing that Pompey were one of the great teams of English football in the post-war years.  He was absolutely thrilled to have scored at Fratton Park.  He remembers floating home on a high. “After getting off the team coach at Ninian Park, I caught the train up The Rhondda to Merthyr, but because the last bus had gone, I had to walk the last mile or so to my village.  I had just scored against mighty Pompey at Fratton Park and there I was, past midnight, walking up the valley with my football boots hung over my shoulder.  ‘So much for the glamour of being a professional footballer’ I thought.” 

After joining Pompey from Bournemouth & Boscombe, when Pompey were struggling in Division 4, Showers learned how tough life as a footballer could be.

He suffered an injury that nearly cost him a leg.  As he was not a prolific goal-scorer, he suffered some vitriolic criticism from the terraces.  Despite this, the centre-forward nicknamed Nookie Bear by Pompey fans, still has brightness in his eyes when talking about playing at Fratton Park.  He had been discovered by Leeds, Juventus and Wales giant, John Charles and signed for Cardiff at 15 years of age.  Today, Derek looks fit and strong enough to still play the game for a living.  As for team kits, Showers would pull on a shirt for whoever was going to pay his wages and help keep a roof over the heads of his beloved family.

Leeds Sonnet 2024/25


Hot August day, hope stitched on our sleeves
We travelled north to take on mighty Leeds
Never thinking we might draw three – three
 
Graffiti, fan stickers and gable-end murals
Walking side by side with the local people
To Elland Road, their football cathedral
 
So good to be back in the second tier
In the bigger towns with bigger grounds
We’ll give it a fair crack, play without fear
 
After that heady first day, we all thought OK
We were a bit lucky, but so were they
No way will it be easy playing away
 
Now they’re here pushing for promotion
While we’re back home battling relegation

n.b. This article was initially published in the Portsmouth FC v Leeds United match day programme, 9th March 2025

~

Chris Perry

26/05/2026

 

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

 

At The Match

/ Christopher Perry / Leave a comment

Have you ever been caught in that dilemma of work versus Pompey?  In some jobs there is flexibility to work when you want and take leave when you need, but in many lines of work leave is granted when the ship gets back to port, or if it is your turn to have a Saturday off.  

Of course, for many retail workers Saturdays, and possibly Sundays, are not available for football.  As a result, getting along to a mid-week game is a real treat for shop workers.  It is worth remembering that those attending mid-week matches are not necessarily the same people who turn out at the weekend.  For some, the first glance through the fixture list is to assess what is on mid-week, whether home or away, because these are the only games they can attend.

For those who manage to complete Saturday morning duties and get to the ground for the traditional three o’clock kick off, everything has to be carefully planned.  A glitch in a train ride, roadworks, or a mechanical issue with the car can seriously disrupt the trip.  This is equally true for those travelling from say, Hereford, Bristol, or some other fine city.  Much is made of the effort Geordies go to attend away games, but Plymouth and Pompey fans are equally respected for attending away games in good numbers, despite the mileage.  Many of today’s visitors from Norwich will have travelled for over four hours (via London if by train) to be at Fratton Park in time for kick-off.  Even their local derby match away to Ipswich is some 46 miles from home.  Hardly the walking distance that north London clubs enjoy, although the recent roadworks in East Anglia must make walking seem like an attractive alternative this season.  Is Norwich v Ipswich the furthest distant derby fixture in the land?

For the self-employed, it is sometimes true that work can be moved around to suit kick-off times, but the reality is often that getting a job done, or customers’ limited availability means being self-employed provides less flexibility on match days than one might hope.  There are many jobs well-suited to Saturday games, but less so for mid-week matches.  For those working in schools, midweek matches in half-terms are great.  These games are a good time to introduce school-age children to matches where they can experience the buzz of an evening game.  I used to love the matches in August, because they take place during the last weeks of school holidays, when going to any game was not a problem.  I particularly enjoyed the early matches on the 1979/80 season when Frank Burrows’ team were launching their successful escape from Division 4.  By contrast, for retirees, (time rich, if not financially well-off), a kick off at any time of day, or day of the week maybe a good way to shake up the stasis some experience of life after work.

Today, we have a SKY match kicking off at just after midday.  It will suit some and not others.  For those who have weddings to attend, it may even be a blessing that the game can be seen before going to a mid-afternoon ceremony.  Pompey and Ipswich hero, Ray Crawford famously got married on a match day morning, playing for Pompey that very afternoon.  A man with a well-balanced perspective on life, you might say, but he was only doing what we all do, trying to balance his private life around his job.

Whatever you do outside football, getting to the game is to be respected.  Football without fans in the ground and without away supporters is meaningless.  Enjoy the game, I’ll be listening on the radio in the van. 

One Hand Clapping 

Do you remember twenty-twenty 
Trouble brewing on pub-less streets? 
Do as I say, not what I do 
Conspiracy theories
Fake News circulated by Tweet
Geezers need excitement
Downing Street believed 
Get the football back on telly 
It’s what the people need 
Her Majesty’s Government’s greatest wheeze 

They’re paid enough for goodness sake 
For the health of the nation 
Players must take the risk 
Camera crews scanning immaculate grass 
Millions watching through glass sat on sofas
Managers’ shouts echoing off empty seats 
Lower league terraces devoid of feet 
It was a daytime nightmare situation
Football played in isolation

~

n.b. This articles was first published in the Portsmouth FC v Norwich City match programme on 10th December, 2025

Chris Perry

22nd May 2026

Turf Moor, The Mystery Ground

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Turf Moor was once a place of mystery to many football fans, particularly those who only saw football through the TV eye of Match of The Day, on late Saturday evenings.  For five years, BBC cameras were banned by then Burnley FC Chairman, Bob Lord and it was the only ground in the country not open to televised match highlights.  Even rickety Layer Road, then home of Colchester United and Pompey’s Jungle Boy, Ray Crawford, was better known around the country, because of regularly repeated highlights of Colchester’s ousting of Leeds United from the FA Cup 5th Round in 1971.  Bob Lord could only see bad things coming from televising football and it is thanks to him that we have a Saturday 3 o’clock embargo on live English footy on telly, protecting the traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off, for what it is worth. 

After the embargo on BBC TV cameras at Turf Moor was lifted, the mystery and mystique of the place still held for me.  It was the ground where Ray Pointer became famous, before he came to Pompey.  Pointer, who won the League Championship with Burnley in 1960, was a hero of mine during my earliest visits to Fratton Park with my grandad. So, on 22nd April 1995, I jumped into my young family’s Peugeot 106 and drove north for a vital relegation battle between Pompey and The Clarets.   Besides being the first-time I bumped into Northern Blues super-fan, Barry Thompson, the day featured a penalty lashed home by John Durnin and the best goal I have ever seen scored by a centre-back.  I may have mentioned it before, but do look up Kit Symons exchanging passes with Deon Burton on the halfway line and his solo sprint that ended with our centre-back rounding the Burnley keeper, Marlon Beresford, before sliding the ball home for our second goal.  The 2-1 win spared Pompey relegation in 1995.  You can find five minutes of the match highlights online one hour and 39 minutes into the ‘Burnley FC End of Season Review 1994/95’.

What I recall specifically of the afternoon, was The Long Side.  This was a terrace that ran the full length of the field, like our famous North Terrace.  Away fans were caged towards the Cricket Ground end, separated from Burney fans by the police, steel railings and netting hanging from the rafters to stop stuff being hurled between supporters.  Over the top of the Bob Lord Stand opposite, snow was lying on the hilltops and a marrow-chilling wind carrying sleet, howled down the pitch.  Before the game, I was asked a few questions about our chances of beating the drop by Radio Solent’s roving reporter, (I was very hopeful we would win), before getting an excellent fish and chip lunch.  I then joined Barry and Ian, another Hereford and Worcester based Pompey fan, in a local Working Men’s Club for a very sociable chat with claret and blue clad locals.  In 1960 Burnley became the smallest town to ever win England’s top football division and it is still a town as proud of its football club, as we are of ours.  In 1995 it seemed to me that every corner shop, petrol station, bus, taxi and local business had claret and blue as corporate colours.   The number of locals wearing club replica shirts seemed far greater than I had previously seen anywhere else during my travels.

Football in 1995 was beginning to change, with the recommendations of the Taylor Report gradually being implemented.  The FA, hand-in-hand with SKY TV, had turned the tables on The Football League and held all the cards at the top table of English football.  Grounds were being turned into all-seater stadia, so to visit Burnley and stand on the Long Side was a chance to see how football used to be, for better or worse.  As so many of we Pompey fans know, travelling to away games, meeting fans of the other team who also attend matches, remains one of life’s greatest pleasures.  So, thank you to all the Burnley fans who have made it to the game this afternoon.  Football and Fratton Park needs you too.

Claret and Blue Blues

I woke up one morning, snow on the ground
Jumped in the Peugeot and headed Up North
M1, M6 empty all the way
On an expedition seeking legendary turf

At Blackburn, after what seemed an age
I had to turn over the road atlas page
To find the turn off to Burnley’s Turf Moor
To set my tired eyes on that mythical stage

Streets painted with Claret and Blue
Kerb stones, zebra crossings and traffic lights
Buses and taxis, factory chimneys too
Is this Burnley?  Well, blow me!  Who knew?

Frost on the windscreen
Snow on The Pennines, sleet in the wind
We are Portsmouth! Three hundred miles from home
Seeking one more vital league win

Johnny Lager and Kit Symons confidently scored
McLouglin and Knightsie (The Legend in goal)
Dug in deep to help Pompey survive
While Burnley, unluckily, slipped into decline

I woke up one morning, snow on the ground
Jumped in the Peugeot and headed Up North
M1, M6 empty all the way to the proud old town
On my last-ditch expedition to the historic turf

Chris Perry

n.b. This article was first published in the Portsmouth FC matchday magazine v Burnley FC on 1st February, 2025