It is very unlikely that you have missed your Sunday Toast over what we Brits call the summer but nevertheless we are back.
Back with all the old features, some new ideas and the odd totally useless facts. Thanks to Al Fresco for his sunshine specials and have a great trip home!!
So what can we look forward to in this seasons Toast? Well we will have Players birthdays, a feature on players from the past, a look at some hot topics and even a new feature ‘Where are they now?’ Just let me know other subjects you would like covered and we will consider it. Anyway enough chat let’s get started.
Never on a Sunday
Pompey kick off the 2008/09 season next Sunday at Stamford Bridge in a 1.30 kick off live on Sky. A tough start to the season but then we are used to that after last time out. It is a ground that Pompey do not have a good recent record on.
We have not won there since a famous win in September 1955 when Chelsea were the champions and Pompey thrashed them 5-1!! In fact Jermain Defoe’s goal last season earned Pompey their first point off Chelsea since we entered the Premier League.
The point of this article is that it will be the first time in their history that Pompey’s season will have started on the Sabbath. In fact Sunday football is of course relatively new – Pompey’s first game was an FA Cup 4th round tie with Orient on 27th January 1974 during the ‘three day week’. It ended goalless but nearly 33,000 packed into Fratton Park. The first Sunday league game was only a week away when 20,000 watched West Brom play out a 1-1 draw at the Park.
Dishing out the cost
With the licensed trade suffering heavily from the credit crunch and the effects of the smoking ban the last thing they needed is additional costs. The Premier League decision to award games to both Sky and Setanta has meant heavy outlay for landlords looking to attract the football watching public.
The equipment is one cost but the monthly fees are in truth unbelievable. Some City Centre pubs can be charged as much as £25,000 per year and the ordinary street corner pub something near to £1,000 a month. Now they need to add to Setanta and larger pubs need to have two decoders to show different events in different parts or bars. Rugby on Sky and geriatric darts on Setanta!! Toast’s local, the Eastney Tavern, has had to install Setanta before the Community Shield and the landlady ain’t happy with the bill.
No wonder the price of a pint is soaring.
Holiday Snaps
At the end of last season Toast asked you to post your holiday photos on the site or send them to us and we would hold a competition. The idea being to see you in your Pompey shirts in far off, exotic or famous places.
So far we have not been flooded with entries, in fact we have had none.
Season Ticket cards
The club have been very naughty with season ticket holders by not telling them that they need to keep their old cards. They will be loaded with the information automatically. You will be charged £5 for a replacement. Apologies from Al Fresco he was aware of this but forget to mention it in his article about Fratton Park.
The same apples to memberships, when you buy a seat it will be sent to the system and a text message sent with your seat number. You get NO ticket.
Thanks for telling us PFC!!
Birthdays
August 1st David James was 38, Jimmy Glass 35 and Kanu 32 (ish)
August 3rd Ron Howells 73, Mickey Lill would have been 72
August 6th Ron Tilsed 56
August 10th Ben Sahar 19, Andy Cook 39
August 13th Benjani 30, Niko Kranjcar 24
August 14th Martin Allen 43
August 15th Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi 33, Alessandro Zamperini 26
Two things come to mind from that list. Firstly there are a lot of goalkeepers born in early August including the only ex players to post on our site, Ron Tilsed. Ron is now living near Melbourne and will have received a card from VP stalwart Pompeygray who is a good friend on Ron’s. In fact Ron drove gray (Dave) to the airport when he flew home to watch the Cup Final.
There are also quite a number of current players on the list so they will all have been splashing out on cards in the dressing room recently – they can probably afford it.
Mickey Lill was, as all wingers are, a popular player with the fans between 1963 and 1965. Signed from Plymouth Argyle he replaced Dave Dodson on Pompey’s left wing and played 39 games scoring just 5 goals. Mickey only scored twice in a game on one occasion and that was the then famous 6-3 win at Leyton Orient in October 1963. Pompey were three down after 30 minutes but aided by a Ron Saunders hat-trick and two from Mickey stormed back in style scoring five goals in eleven minutes!
Apologies to Chix too as I forgot Mickey when we were discussing his article on ex Plymouth players last season.
Mickey left Pompey and moved to South Africa where he played for and coached Germiston Callies. Mickey had earlier coached Sussex village side, Birdham and Witterings United on Wednesday evenings. On retiring from football he taught physical education. Sadly Mickey died of cancer in October 2004 in Johannesburg.
Ron Howells was a Full Back/Wing Half who predated Lill by a few years. He played 65 games for Pompey between signing from Wolves in 1959 and moving to Scunthorpe three years later. He managed only two goals – strangely one of those coming in a win over Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road.
Alessandro Zamperini has dropped down the ladder since leaving Pompey and is currently back playing in his native Rome for Division C2 side Cisco Calcio. Alessandro has a poem by Melanie Howell published on the net – she describes him as – ‘wonderful, superb, brilliant, gorgeous Alessandro Zamperini (Defender for Portsmouth).’
Where are they now?
You give me the name and I will go and find him. Well not quite but if there is an ex-player you are interested in send me a PM and we will try. Unfortunately the budget will not stretch far – if at all but we have already located a few, which we tell you about in the weeks ahead.
UEFA Cup odds
Pompey are about 40-1 to land the trophy in their first year of European competition, alongside Sampdoria and VfB Stuttgart. AC Milan are the favourites at 7-1. These are the best odds available; look around if you want to have a flutter. Ladbrokes for instance have Pompey at only 25-1 sixth favourites!
Well that’s it for the first of the season. Start sending your ideas, comments etc.
PUP
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.
