14,000 Pompey fans there tonight. We'll have 31,000 on Saturday. Made me laugh the skates singing to the Norwich fans "your support is ****ing ****" get a grip skates and look at yourself. Norwich a club with 25,000 every week in league 1, who take maximum allocation for every away game.... versus the deluded Pompey fans. No contest.
Can't take away from the fact we will all be waiting now to see who, where and when we will be playing next season. God how I hate the summer.
Very good, although my favourite Wilde quote has to be, "work is the curse of the drinking classes" But since this thread has a Pompey angle, how about, "Anyone who lives within their means shows a lack of imagination"?
I wonder if like Norwich last night, next season's fixtures will mean Saints going to Fratton to clinch promotion?! I somehow doubt they'll let us take the piss on the Fratton pitch like Norwich fans did last night. Does seem Pompey are getting soft, not so long ago they would have bundled onto the pitch themselves screaming "get orf our manor"
Did you watch any of the match last night? Some of Pompey's tackles left a lot to be desired there were a couple in the first half that on another day could and should have been a straight red. Their Icelandic defender was a times very brutal and Pompey set out to rough Norwich up. They failed miserably and full credit to Norwich they did not respond in kind just kept playing football. If Pompey had concentrated more on trying to beat Norwich playing football rather than roughing them up I think they just might of got something out of the game..........
They looked a poor side. I can't see how at the moment they will have a better squad next season, it will only get weaker and they have absolutely no youth team players to fall back on. I expect they'll keep Kanu playing until he's 50... which is probably next year anyway
Someone at work mentioned today that , come the close of this current season, Portsmouth will have only 8 players currently on contract. I don't know whether this is true but I think the talented Steve Cotterill will have his work cut out. The staggering thing for me is that Portsmouth's demise is following a similar path to Saints under Lowe. Although I feel Lowe started the rot shortly after the 2003 appearance at Cardiff, we were on a downward projectile as soon as we were relegated other than when Burley got us to the play-offs. The culmination of the debacle with Southampton forced to field a squad of talented youngsters not ready for Championship football is a path I fear Chanrai may pursue. Interisting to note that Cotterill elected not to pick a full compliment of substitutes for their last away trip and Alan MacLcughlin picked up on this in his summing up on Radio Solent. Chanrai is not going to pump money into Portsmouth and the calibre of the squad will only suffer. It will be interesting to see how much more Cotterill can take. Effectively, Portsmouth have had their hands tied with building the kind of squad the fans deserve and expect for two seasons and without a take-over, you have to fear the worse for Portsmouth. Cotterill has worked wonders this season and with the addition of about 3-4 decent players, I do not doubt that Portsmouth would be challengiung for a play-off place. When you look at the other teams currently in the Championship, Portsmouth are probably only second to Leeds United as a "big club." Since the Fratton Park Massacre game, genuine Saints fans would have to own up to the fact that we have never had a squad capable of beating our South cosast neighbours although the recent FA Cup tie was demonstrative of how we could give them a good run for their money before fitness, skill and nous resulted in a comfortable away win. For the first 45 minutes, I could have been a different story. Looking at our current squad, you would have to say realistically that we have a Championship team. Portsmouth have no one of the calibre of Adam Lallana and I think , at strength, this promotion team would easily match Portsmouth man for man. If things stand as they are, you would have to fear for Portsmouth and I think they are very much beatable. Unless the squad is drastically improved, I think Portsmouth will struggle next season. Playing European football must seem a very long time ago indeed. There are not many other clubs in English football where the genuine aspirations of the fans have been dealt a cruel blow by the unprofessional manner in which their team has been managed as Portsmouth. It is funny to read some of the comments on this board suggesting that Saints fans are more passionate about their club than Portsmouth. In reality, I think (barring the few idiots) the passion displayed by Pompey fans is probably only rivalled by Newcastle and, I regret to say, is something probably beyond the comprehension of most Southampton fans who I feel are more philosophical and pragmatic in their support. Unless Chanrai either sells the club or radical re-thinks the way he runs it as a sports club whose sole function is for the pleasure of the local community, I think that the Fratton Faithful will be in for a torrid 2011/12 season. It is a great pity that those running the club cannot see the folly of Southampton in the Lowe era albeit his arrogance and ignorance of the game brought up down as opposed to playing financial Russian Roulette. Cheers Ian
A good summation of the Pompey predicament. In your comparison to Saints though you did forget to mention that while Pompey are on the bare minimum of players of anything like first team caliber some of them were of a reasonable standard. Enough perhaps to make a core of a squad in both experience and age. Saints had a lot of untried youngsters and not a lot else although we could put out a full bench. Lowe had sold all our prize players plus the ones with any real potential with the exception of a couple I guess the administrator did the rest. We could have just about have survived in the championship once our benefactor took over, with the new manager, but it may have been tight. who knows what might have been!!
Weird post. The Championship contains Nottingham Forest, who are light years "bigger" than Pompey in every regard. Leicester, Ipswich, Derby, Norwich & Middlesbrough are also much superior clubs to Portsmouth. I have never believe the hype of Pompey fans and their so called Passion. It's a myth. Yes, they have fans who love their club, every club has those fans. To use Newcastle as an example blows that argument out the water. I've been to St James Park when there was 18,000 there, was sod all passion that day on show.
Chocloate box kid Sorry, I have to disagree with you although I am at fault for not really explaining that I believe Portsmouth have also been one of football's under-achievers. Of the teams you mention, only Forest have won a sizeable amount of silverware and this is almost soley under the auspices of Brian Clough. I my opinion this is probaly the greatest set of achievements by a Provincial club. Ditto Derby under Clough. Other than a league Cup win under Martin O'Neill, Leicester have achieved little. Ipswich flickered briefly under Sir Bobby Robson but quickly reverted back to a provincial club. As for the others, they have very little pedigree. Middlesborough have woeful attendances and are very much a second string team on the North East. It's easy to forget but Portsmouth are a club that has engendered support worldwide through the Royal Navy (maybe more in the past as our maritime presence has shrunk to reflect the country's diminished stature in the world) and , had it not been for Hitler, are alleged to have been so strong as to have dominated English football in the early forties as well as the end of the decade when they oicked up two , successive titles. I think you will find that they also provided the national squad with several players at this time - a feat later repeated in the 2000's when they had James, Defoe, Johnson, etc, etc. Culturally, Portsmouth are an important club. Part of Clough's aura was the fact that he achieved success with provincial teams that had hitherto made little impression on a national scale. I am no expert of Portsmouth's honours but this link should give you an inkling of their record:- http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/club/honours.aspx It would be curious to compare this with a club such as Newcastle United - I wouldn't think that there is too great an amount of difference in the amount of trophies won between 1945-2011 or atleast not out of proportion to their respective "perception" amongst football fans. If you want to make a comparison with any football club, Portsmouth should be measured against a side like West Ham - i.e. A great tradition and solid working class support yet only sporadically obtaining their potential. I have supported Southampton since 1974/5 and have no affinity for our South Coast neighbours but I still wouldn't deny them a "big club" tag. It would be fascinating to see some of the analysis that the writers Kuper and Syzmanski applied to England's international win record to assess Portsmouth. I feel that this would demonstrate that Portsmouth have effectively under-achieved. In my opinion, they are a sizeable club (certainly from a "cultural" point of view if nothing else) but probably have substantially underperformed in the last 50-odd years. I would also add that the respective owners have also had a very regressive attitude concerning the way that the team has almost consistantly been mis-managed by the numerous proprietors. This has certainly left them languishing in the past in an antiquated stadium and non-existent training facilties. As much as it pains me to say it, Harry Redknapp definately knew how to unleash the potential of this team - a reason why their continued fall will be more spectacular than our own.
Hreiderson is an animal but the Blue few love him for his fighting instincts. Seem they love his refusal to get beaten even though he often is. Getting on a bit now and has had his fair share of injuries of late.
I must admit that as I grew up pompey were always regarded as the big team down the road. When we met them and got a win it was always a case for rejoicing that we had beaten not only our local rivals but also a well regarded outfit with some history. Something that causes bad feeling from them is the simple fact that we have beaten them more often than they have us. Their ground is their pitfall as it is old and derelict in comparison to many clubs and some are smaller. Rotherham being one example. Owners are responsible for looking after a club and the fans and pompey owners have failed miserably on both counts.
Still don't get the point of the lengthy eulogy towards Pompey and I'm suspicious that its a WUM doing them. "Solid working class support" - You mean the solid working class support who don't actually go to Pompey games? The ones that deserted the club during two administrations, when Saints were getting 25,000 for their potential last ever game, Pompey were getting 11,000? Every time I venture to Pompey, I seen more Chelsea & Man U shirts on kids than Pompey ones. As for England internationals, Saints have had twice as many as Pompey. It's laughable you bring up the recent group of money-grabbers who only went to Pompey because they paid them ã80,000 a week. You are dealing in myths mate. And don't give me the 1950's attendances. It was free entry at Fratton for Armed forces after the war, my father often went down there when Saints were playing away, because the rivalry was almost non-existant and many fans watched both clubs without it being an issue. Southampton is more of a football city than Pompey, despite both cities being nearly the same size and having similar sized catchment area and satellite towns.
To be fair if I was a Pompey supporter I would not be very happy having to watch them in their rusting tin cow shed. Agree that using the recent names is a bit off due to them only being there for the money. We were lucky enough to get a new stadium even though doing so very nearly killed us. If they had a better place top watch it is a distinct possibility that more fans would turn up on a regular basis.
Well, St Mary's wasn't the reason Saints went into Administration. The annual payment was only ã1.5m or so. It was the bank overdraft and the lack of funding from the directors that was the critical reason for us almost going bust. I honestly think Pompey's crowds now are their "hardcore". They are consistent with what they've had when not in the top division for the past 40 years. Don't think the stadium makes much difference.
