Well Toast is back with an Awards special and of course all the latest news and views.
Don’t get shirty
Pompey launched their new Away shirt this week with the newly designed badge. The kit will be worn by Pompey in the Sunday curtain closer with Fulham.
But before you rush out and splash your cash the shirt has an in-built design. Quite simply the collar covers the new badge or at least the top half of it. A number of customers have spotted this already including Mark Mudie and it seems something that should have been rectified before the big day.
Good news for the girls is the ladies version does not have this problem. Toast believes this may be due to women being a different shape though!
Chix’s Cup Final special T shirts are available before the Fulham game and what a bargain they are. No design fault here we gather just a unique memento of what will be a special day. Toast is hoping VP members will take their new acquisitions on their holidays and send back pictures of them being worn in famous or far off places.
Send your photos in and we will put them in an album for all to see – might even find a prize for the best.
Wembley needs your cash
As we get ready to return to Wembley Stadium next week a quick at how our National Stadium is doing.
The Stadium lost £22million during its first year of operation. Official figures are due to be announced shortly, but the full financial impact of getting the £800million national stadium up and running is beginning to emerge.
Running costs have been significantly higher than expected, particularly because of the bill for security at events that could be targeted by terrorists. At one stage last year, costs were running 50 per cent over budget.
The core function of the FA is to support grassroots football in England and Wembley have extended the loan on the stadium over an extended period; A type of re-mortgaging deal. This will significantly reduce their annual interest payments on the deal with the banks.
There is no limit on the number of events that Wembley can stage, but the state of the pitch has to be of paramount importance. After the NFL fixture last summer the pitch had to be re-laid and £750,000 was spent on lamps designed to enhance the quality of the surface. The Toast was not over impressed with the surface in the Semi-Final, it seemed very dead and not conducive to flowing football.
So remember every penny you spend inside the stadium next week is indirectly helping football across England.
Toast has just watched the FA Trophy Final at Wembley and the pitch looks the same, slow and sapping. A pointer for the FA Cup Final though, the Trophy was won by Ebbsfleet United who are managed by Portsmouth born Liam Daish. Liam of course played one game for Pompey before moving on to Cambridge United. Ebbsfleet are the club saved from extinction by the internet when 28,000 members bought shirts.
Player of the Season
Having given the matter a great deal of thought the Toast staff have reached a decision on their player of the season. Bearing in mind the prices paid for players and the expectations of the fans on their signing the Toast Player of the Season is Hermann Hreidarsson.
Hermann (33) arrived on a free transfer with a record of relegating every team he had played for. After a quiet start Hermann has now become a firm favourite with the fans for his barnstorming and fearless performances. Playing through injury, throwing his body in the way of anything he shows he true Icelandic spirit, which once again won him his nation`s player of the year award.
Hermann has replaced Lomana Lua Lua with his famous goal celebration. While not attempting back flips Hermann makes do with a forward roll, which we have seen three times this season.
Quite surprisingly Hermann was not included in Storagematt’s recent poll. Toast has no argument with the player’s decision of Sylvan Distin or the likely fans choice David James but feels Hermann has come from nowhere really in the Linvoy Primus spirit and merits the ‘award’.
Performance of the Season
There have been a number of great performances by Pompey this season – and of late, a number of poor ones too. It would be easy to pick the Cup quarter final win at Old Trafford as that will stick in the minds of fans for years but we have decided that the performance of the season should be Newcastle United away.
Pompey travelled to St James’ Park on 3 November having won the previous three away games but this was a ground where they had a very poor record and had not won there since August 1949.
That hoodoo was not just broken it was sunk without trace in the nearby North Sea. It all started with a Noe Pamarot howitzer and was quickly followed strikes from Benjani and John Utaka. Pompey were 3-0 up in eleven minutes and the 50,000 plus crowd were stunned. This was quite simply the best away performance by Pompey in the Premier League and made the football world sit up and take notice. It also marked the beginning of the end for Big Sam Allardyce.
Goal of the Season
Once again plenty of choice but Toast has selected Sulley Muntari’s second goal at Villa Park in December.
Sulley shrugged off a challenge from Villa midfield ball winner Nigel Reo-Coker took the ball forward around a defender and then from fully 25 yards bent the ball around Scott Carson with the outside of his left foot. Great power and precision against supposedly England’s number one goalkeeper.
The only shame is that Muntari has not done this more during a season of promise but no real consistency.
Well that is another Toast done and dusted. This week we will be producing a number of Cup Final specials and if you would like anything covered or have something you would like to say drop me a note.
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.
