After last week’s game we wrote ‘we will need lady luck to shine on us rather more than she did yesterday’, how prophetic! Since then the mythical woman has definitely taken a dim view of Pompey. Bad refereeing decisions have meant we have slipped to bottom of the table and the brave display at the Emirates certainly did not deserve that.
We will not mention the word takeover but something needs to happen soon. The only good news on the day was the Academy team starting their season with a 2-0 win at Barnsley.
Thanks to Sol
Not long ago we were all singing ‘When Sol went of to lift the FA Cup, we were there we were there!’ Well we seem to have forgotten that and have left the big man drift away with very little comment or thanks.
The three years Sol was at Pompey were the greatest in the living memory and that is surely not a coincidence. He started by playing alongside Linvoy in 2006 a pushed the team to their highest position in over fifty years. Then in 2007/08 the partnership between Sol and a newly arrived Sylvan Distin was arguably the best in the Premier League. The clean sheets were rolled off as were the away wins in the autumn and of course the FA Cup was won with the loss of only one goal – a wicked deflection – in six games.
During those years Sol was of course the captain and led the side with great fortitude and great pride. His detractors will argue that he was overpaid and had lost his pace and the former is probably true but at the end of last season with the relegation trap door beginning to open Sol was one of the major reasons it was not allowed to shut.
He is still looking for a club and the latest stories link him with a move to join the Sven revolution at Notts County. Well whether he ends up at Meadow Lane or grazing on another pasture, the Toast team would like to thank Sol and wish good luck for the future.
Birthdays
We have been through the list now so they will be brief unless something of interest has occurred. Remember to click the name for the link to view the Pompeyrama stats on the player.
23rd August
Glen Johnson is 25 – Probably the player fans least wanted to lose but most expected to leave during the summer. There is doubt he will be the England right back for many years to come. Good luck Glen and thanks for all the great moments.
Graham Horn is 55 – Big goalkeeper played 20 odd games on loan from Arsenal in 1972/73.
Bill Williams is 67 – born in Surrey but Pompey picked him up as a youngster and he played for England Youth as a centre half. Bill played only three games for Pompey which all ended in defeat and were to be Freddie Cox`s last three in charge. Bill then moved to QPR and eventually settled at Gillingham in 1967 where he played close to 200 games.
Jimmy Stephen will be 87 – joined in 1949 from Bradford Park Avenue and played exactly 100 league games when Pompey were at their best. Jimmy captained Scotland during his six wartime internationals. Jimmy and Glen Johnson were two of the four right backs short-listed for the greatest ever Pompey side.
Jimmy still lives locally and was seen shopping in Southsea just a few weeks ago,
24th August
Michael Thomas is 42 – another England cap who made his league debut for Pompey on loan from Arsenal. A midfield legend for the Gunners and Liverpool who of course scored the goal for Arsenal that won the championship at Anfoeld. However he played and left back in his too brief spell at Fratton Park and impressed all that saw him.
Ken Todd is 52 – Ken was a much vaunted Frank Burrows signing back in 1979 but he only started one game plus two as a substitute. Ken was an attacking midfield player and after leaving the blues played a reat deal on non league football in the area.
26th August
Peter Shearing is 71
27th August
Sulley Muntari is 25
Ian Drummond is 82 – Scottish full back who played just once in the 1948 FA Cup win over Brighton at Fratton Park.
On this day
Toast looks back at things that happened on or around this date in the years gone by. This week the chosen years all show good starts to the season with different end results.
6 years ago 23rd August 2003 Pompey were within seconds of winning the first ever league match at the City of Manchester stadium. Yakubu had put Pompey in front and then with seconds remaining David Sommeil scored the Citeh equaliser.
22 years ago 22nd August 1987 Pompey gain there first point in the top division for twenty eight years and it is in a game long awaited by all Pompey fans. Southampton visit Fratton Park for the first time in eleven years and escape with a 2-2 draw. Vince Hilaire put Pompey ahead with a lob from the edge of the box but had to rely on a Clive Whitehead equaliser with a quarter of an hour left. Few remember that match but all fans old enough will recall the return at the Dell.
46 years ago 24th August 1963 Pompey again were away to Manchester City and this time at Maine Road. Ron Saunders and an own goal sealed an opening day 2-0 victory.
Over the wall
Well we mentioned it last but got no response from you the fans. We want you to tell us the stories of how you have watched a game without paying for the privilege. How about at the old Goldstone ground where there were gardens overlooking the ground and as long as you could persuade the home owners you were doing no wrong or perhaps finding a stadium somewhere that the fence could be climbed?
Send them in and let’s have some fun.
Back from hols
Well just back from a short break in Cornwall and that is why this week`s Toast is a little shorter than usual. Interesting that down in the far west most local football fans wear only ‘copies’ of their teams shirts in fact we saw only two official shirts with names on the back.
The first was a Pompey short with nine and Crouch on the reverse – he was a young lad and I gather the parents had not worked up the courage to tell him Crouchie had been sold. The second was a Liverpool shirt with a number five on the back and the name? Baros! Well news is slow reaching these parts!!
PUP
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