Tracyc’s plea to Pompey players and the management team ahead of the game against the Scummer next weekend.
Pompey fans and players are not the same. Fans live and breathe the club, with a passion, it’s in their blood. Being a supporter gets passed down through the generations. There is never a question of leaving and supporting any other club – we really are ‘Pompey till I die’. Part of being a Pompey fan is the bitter rivalry with Southampton, this is felt as passionately as is the love for the blue team on the south coast.
What the fans and players do have in common right now, is that the off-field plight of the club has been bringing us all down. Fans have been horrified to see players not getting paid on time or sold to try and balance the books. We wake up every morning and remember the situation the club is in again with horror. And then there is the fact that none of this situation is the doing of the players or the fans – all are just victims watching and waiting and hoping for the best.
Of course, wages delays aside, players are reasonably well-off. In general, the fans are not. Many of them may have suffered in the credit crunch, some have lost jobs and many are struggling financially. Yet blues fans still turn out home and away, get behind the team and make noise in a way that Pompey fans truly do best. They do this even though we’ve been bottom of the league almost all season. They travel to the north of England and watch the team get thrashed, and still come back for more.
I think it’s fair to say that Pompey fans could do with a break, something to make us smile again, even if briefly.
This week is going to be a make or break week for Portsmouth Football Club off the field. The court case for the winding-up petition submitted by HRMC starts on Wednesday, and the most likely outcome seems to be that the club will be wound up, i.e. that it will cease to be with immediate effect. Of course we all hope for the best but it’s tense.
It’s therefore incredible timing that the FA Cup draw has picked next weekend to give us another south coast derby.
For the main part of my lifetime as a Pompey fan, Southampton were the club on top. They were in the top flight, and we weren’t. And boy, they let us know it! During some of that time, Pompey went through a crisis similar, but less severe, to the one they are facing now, they fell down through the league to division 4 and came close to going out of business. Saints fans laughed and threw pennies. So it was very very sweet when Pompey came back up to the premier league, and thrashed Southampton on their way down.
They have now fallen down another division. Despite the off-field worries and our position in the league table, Pompey are still a premier league club. This is why it is so important that the Pompey players go out at St Mary’s next Saturday, and show them that. Play them off the park and give them the thrashing of their lives.
The HMRC court case means this could be the final fixture ever played by the historic and traditional Portsmouth Football Club. It’s so important that history shows that this was won by the blues.
That’s why we need the players to play like they have never played before. The fans will be there, tickets sold out within hours, and will make noise and get behind the team and spur you on as much as we possibly can.
Don’t do it for the club owners. Don’t do it for the FA cup, or to get through to the next round. Don’t just do it for the win bonus. Do it for the fans. The beleaguered, long suffering Pompey fans. And do it for the history of Portsmouth Football Club. Please!
Play Up Pompey!
Written by tracyc.
The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.
