Fratton Park faithful dare to dream after escaping the doldrums

[Selsey Bill]

Interesting article in the Independent today, well worth a read:

In the autumn of 2012 the nation was still collectively basking in the afterglow of the London Olympics – at one of English football’s most historic clubs, though, there was a genuine danger of the sun-setting for good.

“It was a dark, dark time,” says former Pompey favourite, Linvoy Primus, one of the many staff members who were made redundant as the club’s finances unravelled at terrifying speed.

“It got to the stage where players were getting contracts, but most of them were no longer than a month. Some were even week-to-week.

“I saw the uncertainty for players at first hand. If players picked up an injury then that could be that – they faced having their contracts terminated there and then.”

For a club that had been in the Premier League and enjoyed the financial windfall that accompanies it since 2004, Pompey’s all-too-near brush with extinction was an almost unparalleled example of economic mismanagement.

If trophies were dished out for spending beyond your means, then Pompey would have cleaned up like no club in history.

As they prepare to take on AFC Wimbledon this weekend, however, the days of turning up and witnessing football’s answer to an identity parade – over 50 players were used by Pompey during a 2012/13 season that saw them drop into League Two for the first time since 1978 – are long gone.

Instead of looking down, they’re looking up, with the club perched at the top of League One and eyeing a return to the Championship after a blistering start to their campaign.

Little wonder that Pompey boss, Kenny Jackett, smiles when he’s asked whether being top of the table brings it with more pressure than being in the chasing pack.

“It’s nice to be top,” he says. “If you can’t enjoy being top then you can’t enjoy anything, can you? The ultimate aim is to try to get promoted, there’s no doubt about that. We should see the positives and enjoy it.”

That’s what the locals are doing and even after two draws and a defeat in their last three home matches, the mood in the city is buoyant.

Gosport-born Jack Whatmough, one of the standout young players in Jackett’s industrious side, is one of the few players to have been at the club throughout the most tumultuous period in its recent history.

He’s well aware of just how much this club means to this island city, although he did play – whisper it quietly - down the M27 at Southampton until the age of 13.

“It was never a problem,” he says. “Although a kid, they couldn't have been much older than five or six, did once call me a scummer while I was walking through Fareham.”

Whatmough left Saints and headed to Pompey at the end of the 2012 season, just as the club’s free-fall gathered the kind of momentum that proved almost impossible to halt.

He nearly made history the following August, finding himself on the bench for a League Cup tie with Plymouth for a League Cup tie against Plymouth when he was still four days shy of his 16th birthday.

“We travelled to that match with two full-time footballers,” he said. “The rest were kids from the academy. It wasn’t the easiest introduction.

“In many ways it was a bit of a blessing for me. It wasn’t a nice situation for the club to be in, but it did mean that I got given my debut at a young age and now, 80 appearances later, I’m still playing.

“It was daunting to play in that situation. We were struggling in League Two, that was the reality.”

After the takeover by the Supporters Trust in April 2013, Pompey’s future was at least back in the club’s hands rather than the mitts of administrators or HMRC.

And despite the club’s travails in League Two in the seasons that followed, the number of supporters coming through the turnstiles at Pompey’s archaic Fratton Park remained steadfastly high.

“We still had 15,000 coming down – some clubs in the Championship would give anything for that,” says Whatmough. “15,000 supporters in League Two? That’s borderline unheard of.

“Now we’re getting almost 19,000 every week.”

The club is now in the hands of American owners, with Michael Eisner buying out the Supporters Trust in August 2017, but Pompey’s fans are still very much invested in its future.

“The fact that so many of us put our hands in our pockets showed just how we close we were to going out of existence,” says Dan Wood, a Pompey season ticket who has experienced the good, the bad and the downright insane over the past decade.

“And there’s a real mood of cautious optimism. In many ways, I think this team is a real reflection of the people who have watched this club through thick and thin. There’s a genuine resilience about them.”

“At times this season we’ve played some lovely football, but even when we haven’t we’ve still managed to come away with the points.”

During the 2012/13 campaign that almost saw the two-time First Division winners disappear from the English football map, Pompey didn’t win between 20 October and 2 March, a run of 23 matches.

They only won 10 games in that entire season. Victory over AFC Wimbledon – another team whose supporters refused to give up on them - on Saturday would already leave them just one short of that tally.

“This football club means an awful lot to an awful lot of people,” says Primus. “And for a long time a lot of them didn't know if they were even going to have a club to support the following day. Promotion back to the Championship would be massive. Absolutely massive.”

Jackett and Whatmough are not getting carried away, pointing out, quite rightly, that that season is still just over a quarter old.

On the Fratton Park terraces, though, there’s a feeling that the good times might be about to roll once more.

“Dare we dream?” says Wood. “We probably should, shouldn’t we?

“We certainly couldn’t be in a better place at the moment.”

[pompeygunner]

Cheers Selsey Bill, really enjoyed reading that. Gets you thinking how far we fell & how far we've come with more to come hopefully.

[Berkshire Blue]

Thanks for that SB - onwards and upwards!

[itsaintfunny]

Have to say that's quite some journey and well done to all the fans who came good with the money to buy the club and the few like Old Spice who went the extra mile.
I wish you all the best for the rest of the season and then a very long stay in the Championship !

[Lost in Transportation]

I wish you....a very long stay in the Championship !

We'll see you there...

[itsaintfunny]

I wish you....a very long stay in the Championship !

We'll see you there...

Very likely but think we will be just above bottom three this time.
Its going to be a very long season though with more downs than ups and we need our absentee owners to appoint a new Management structure.
We were spoilt under Koeman but I do think we are capable of mid table .

[Purbrook Chimes]

spoke to a Southampton fan (home & away) about this recently, I asked why did you get rid of claude poel at least he was getting results and you finished 8th , his answer was that everyone found his football boring , well things are certainly not boring now are they!

[OldSpice]

Have to say that's quite some journey and well done to all the fans who came good with the money to buy the club and the few like Old Spice who went the extra mile.
I wish you all the best for the rest of the season and then a very long stay in the Championship !

Kind words, ISF, thank you.

We do seem to have been flavour of the week with this type of article in at least 5 publications.

There is also a documentary due to be released in early 2019, which I am looking forward to seeing.

[Lost in Transportation]

I wish you....a very long stay in the Championship !

We'll see you there...

Very likely but think we will be just above bottom three this time.
Its going to be a very long season though with more downs than ups and we need our absentee owners to appoint a new Management structure.
We were spoilt under Koeman but I do think we are capable of mid table .

Cardiff and Huddersfield look like they will fill two of the three places. Fulham can't defend for toffee. Newcastle are struggling under the weight of Ashley's complacency. West Ham are a bit random. Palace have scoring problems. Burnley and Brighton are very functional. You're in the mix this season as any of the bottom 9 could go down. I tend to think Mark Hughes is a negative in those sorts of situations but you should have enough to avoid the trap door. There are worse sides than you on paper.

[New Forester]

My Saints fan friend at Lymington Market said to me on Saturday “see you next year”
“You said it, not me” said I.

[Selsey Bill]

My Saints fan friend at Lymington Market said to me on Saturday “see you next year”
“You said it, not me” said I.

I think there are 3 worse teams than them in the PL. In some respects I'm not sure I want to play them next season.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

My Saints fan friend at Lymington Market said to me on Saturday “see you next year”
“You said it, not me” said I.

I think there are 3 worse teams than them in the PL. In some respects I'm not sure I want to play them next season.

Yeah...me neither. We have good bragging rights lately but that might come crashing down when former Division 3 team meets former Premier League team.

[pompeygunner]

My Saints fan friend at Lymington Market said to me on Saturday “see you next year”
“You said it, not me” said I.

I think there are 3 worse teams than them in the PL. In some respects I'm not sure I want to play them next season.

Yeah...me neither. We have good bragging rights lately but that might come crashing down when former Division 3 team meets former Premier League team.

Cmon Gents. We all know that if relegated most PL teams have to shed players quicker than a Horse Chestnut tree sheds leaves in Autumn. Plus of course having a manager capable of replacing the players lost. Looking @ it as things stand as of now then maybe, but I'd wager things would look a whole deal different for both sides in the championship.