Toast is well cooked this week after what can only be described as a very hectic seven days.
Cup Final Tickets
The lucky ones among us are for the first time in our lifetime’s owners of Cup Final tickets – well we have paid for them anyway. The process has been in the main much smoother than for the Semi Final and Pompey are to be congratulated on that.
A number of Vital members have been helped by PFC office staff to overcome problems and that good news is also to the credit of Vital Pompey as without the help of tracyc and others the news would not have been spread. There indeed are some who could say because I joined VP I got my Final ticket!!
Toast gathers that Peter Storrie and his staff however have just about had enough. Evidence of this we hear was when Storrie met the London Supporters club and threw the tickets on the table with a comment ‘I don’t want any of those back!’ Peter we all love you and Rug even wants to send you flowers so ‘Lighten up’.
Ran into Micky Mellows this week and he told me that all ex-players after tickets were being put into a lottery for tickets and were not entitled to one. That answers a question on the Forum from Irishpompey.
To those who have to have to wait until Tuesday – Scramble Day – good luck!
Money Walks
Richard Money walked out on Walsall this week after nearly two years in charge. The former Pompey defender led the Saddlers to the League Two title last season and left once it was confirmed they could not reach the League One play-offs.
Richard said ‘Looking to the future, I believe that this decision is in the best interests of both myself and the club’. Basically there was no money in the summer to improve the squad but Money was too kind to say it.
Toast knows that Richard who also had successful spells as Youth manager at Aston Villa and Coventry City, will soon be back in football.
TV Toast
The ‘Toast offices’ were this week turned into a television studio by visiting investigative journalist Elisa Mitchell. Elisa, of ITV Meridian Tonight, has been working with Vital Pompey on a story to be screened on Meridian Tonight next Friday at 6:00pm. Filming took over one hour to complete and involved the moving of furniture all over the Eastney headquarters and the office cat had to be firmly put in his place.
You will have to wait until Friday to discover more but for those of you reading this outside the Meridian area, Rug will post the link on the front page for you all to watch over the Internet after the event or just visit itvlocal.com/meridian.
Elisa scooped the ‘Regional Consumer Journalist of the Year’ title in 2007 for presenting coverage of trading standards issues that ‘go beyond the easy headlines’ so prepare for an in depth story.
This week’s team
This week we have a team of Johns. See what you think.
Milkins
McLaughlin (from Swindon)
Beresford
Moncur
Gittens
Phillips
McClelland
Ruggiero
Aloisi
Durnin
Lathan
There are a few legendary names there especially Aloisi and Durnin. Also names we have written about recently including McClelland and Milkins. Some would rate John Milkins as the greatest Pompey goalkeeper of all time – 344 games in 14 years at the club.
Birthdays
Not many this week but thanks to Chix’s hard work we know that on
April 29th David Munks will be 61,
May 1st Alexei Smertin 33,
May 2nd Mick Quinn 46.
Lunch with Linvoy
Toast managed to get an invitation to one of Linvoy’s sessions where he talks about his life, football and religion. He really has become quite a public speaker now and readily addresses large groups of people.
This group was made up of Pompey and Southampton fans with no segregation! Pompey fans were only too keen to point out that it was the third anniversary of that famous 4-1 victory although Linvoy was quick to point out that he did not play that day.
Linvoy traced his love of football back to seeing Ricky Villa score for Man City against Spurs in the FA Cup Final replay when he knew he wanted to play football. He described the first Pompey prayer meeting, which was the day of the Manchester City game where Pedro Mendes scored the 93rd minute winner, which sparked the great escape.
In question time Linvoy said that Harry Redknapp was not a believer but he was beginning to waiver. He described HR as a manager who trusted his players and knew exactly what they were capable of but he had a hard side to him as well. He said that as yet contract talks had reached no conclusion but that he was desperate to play in the Community Shield.
I am certain every Pompey fan hopes that Linvoy Primus is offered a new contract; he feels this has been a year out and will help extend his career. The only doubt in the mind is if John Mensah is signed who makes way? It certainly would be great for Linvoy who has given his club so much over eight years to walk out at Wembley in August. I have posted some photos of the event in Albums – click here
Finally one of the audience did admit to seeing the light. In a broad Black Country accent he told how he moved from Walsall two years ago and then visited Fratton Park. He immediately became hooked and is now a season ticket holder. His Pompey shirt proudly carries the number 2 and he pleaded with Linvoy to get back in the side as he hadn’t since he spent £50 on the shirt. Now that is true conversion.
See you next week – just hope it is a quiet one.
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.
