Well here we go with slice #2 of Semi Final Toast – keep those ‘what it means to me’ coming in please guys and gals.
Still need a ticket
Don’t forget tomorrow at 9am is the last chance saloon on tickets. The weather for those brave enough to wait overnight is mainly dry with the chance of a shower later in the night. Temperatures will drop to about 8ºC and the wind will be moderate and gusty from the West.
Travel News
Nothing new to report.
Injury News
Pompey are hoping to have a full squad to choose from on Saturday with the exception of Noe Pamarot who is a few weeks off being back to fitness.
Haslar Hospital are proving the Oxygen chamber treatment for both John Utaka and Herman Hreidarsson. Utaka is still doubtful with a tight hamstring and Pompey’s medical staff believe it may be a tear. Herman should heal in time and as Harry says he is a ‘hard nut’ and will play.
Niko Krancjar has got over his bruised shin and Lassana Diarra has been training all week. The other injury doubt was Lucien Aubey who is now running after a hamstring scare.
What it means to me #2
Today’s rather different angle on getting to Wembley comes from one of the Toast’s researchers Jimbo. I think most of the regular contributors to the site will find something to smile about in here.
‘Forty plus seasons as a Pompey fan and at long last off to Wembley with them, but why is “being a Pompey fan” so very different from the norm? Well I have come up with a list of “incidents” over those four decades that I, at least, think highlights the uniqueness of “our” club.
So where do we start? I know, having a ticket for a League Cup replay with Tottenham and still being locked out of the ground will do for a kick-off and I suppose we could follow that up with, after only having missed a handful of away games in a decade, still being told by the club that you have been unsuccessful in getting a ticket for our first game at the Emirates. Sound familiar to anyone else?
Let’s stay with the negatives for now because where else would you lose 7-0 at home in a testimonial for your long standing goalkeeper. What other club, in the heyday of the football hooligan, would have their official away coaches leave at 10.30pm on the Friday night before the Saturday afternoon KO, dropping the fans in town centres like York, Bolton, etc at 5am. Well at least the newspapers, bread, milk and whatever else had been delivered to the shop fronts was free of charge (well except a possible police one). Of course we can also claim to still be the only club where an entire trainload of fans were arrested and held until after the game, guilt assumed on all just for boarding the same train as the idiots of our time. Then of course a pleasant day out to a pre-season friendly with Le Havre, well I was looking forward to picking up my duty frees!
Then there’s the best unbeaten start to the season in my living memory that ended when Wimbledon scored their second goal without any of their own players touching the ball after the first one went in.
Off side goals in play-offs, 4-0 up at half time and drawing 4-4, 5-2 up with minutes to go and drawing 5-5. Well, to look on the bright side, at least we never lost either of those two games. And do not forget all our generous donations to Ticketmaster.
But of course the positives far outweigh those “unusual events”. What other club can claim Santa Claus set up their two injury time goals in a promotion clash. Who else had their own “Dancing Homer” on the roofs of Ipswich, accompanied by a drum and bugle corp.
Was Martin Fooks the only fan in the country who booked his own British Rail football specials, week on week, for hundreds of supporters to follow their team, and he even got them to stop at Oxford on the way back to take on hundreds of pre ordered KFC meals? Tickertape! How many sack loads were on each of those trains, handed out to all and sundry? I remember how it came up over my ankles on the Lincoln City terrace until some bright sparks decided to set fire to it.
Whichever numpties were responsible for that action can not have failed to see the irony of our trip to Huddersfield a few years later and what was happening just down the road at Bradford. Many positives with Bradford though, staying up, going up, white boots, the “never to be forgotten” Aaron Flahavan faint.
Pompey defeated the might of Manchester United now that sounds familiar, as we voted George Ley the best looking footballer, via the Football League Review, ahead of “all season” leader George Best. And even if Hartlepool’s “Angus the Monkey” is now Mayor of the town, do not forget it was Pompey who led the way in democracy with the unforgettable goings on of the 1987 Portsmouth South general election.
Then there’s our “captures” from the army, bunking off school for midweek afternoon FA Cup replays at Swindon and Orient during the power cuts of the 70s, Stockport County, Arry and Jim. Proper stench filled toilets, Linvoy, Alan Ball’s flat cap, pre match hail stones and of course let’s not forget that we are the club responsible for the Welsh, and the people of Cardiff in particular, being able to tell the time..’
Thanks Jimbo, great stuff! Tomorrow is Pompey4me’s turn. It was great to hear yesterday from Colsue who told the following story.
‘In 1939 my mother queued from 5 o’clock in the morning to get two cup final tickets at Fratton Park. Unfortunately I broke my leg and was unable to go, so my uncle took my place with my father. Bitter disappointment for a 14yr old!! But all was forgotten when Pompey won, and I followed the coach that evening as Jimmy Guthrie and his team paraded the cup through the town, I shall remember that to my dying day. Play up Pompey!’
That says it all and perhaps some of the younger readers will look back and think that in years to come.
Weather
The latest forecast for Saturday is – Mainly Cloudy with a small chance of rain – Maximum temperature 9ºC.
See you tomorrow.
Written by eastneydave.
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.
