Premier League

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

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

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