Today's hat is red and blue - the colours of Crystal Palace.
I've been to Selhurst Park a few times over the years to see Pompey play but I don't ever recall seeing an away win.
That includes one game there against Wimbledon before they moved to Milton Keynes, changed their name to MK Dons and the heart of the club re-established itself in the lower leagues as AFC Wimbledon. That was a surreal night. The ground was pretty much empty apart from the 9,000 or so Pompey fans who'd made the trip and saw Pompey leave empty handed again. All very odd.
The one game when they did emerge victorious, a 3-2 win against The Eagles in the 2002-03 promotion season, I missed. Ho hum.
But I digress...
When I think of Crystal Palace my mind drifts back to a game on the May Day Bank Holiday back in 1987. Monday 4th May to be precise.
I was supposed to be revising for my Finals, which started the following day, but a trip to South London to see Pompey secure promotion was just too much to miss.
I travelled up with my mate Rich in his orange Ford Popular for this 12 Midday kick-off. I seem to recall the trip up was busy and we were 'behind schedule'; he managed to park it on the corner of an obscure street near to the ground only minutes before the kick-off. That would never happen today.
We arrived at the turnstiles just as a flurry of ticker-tape, thrown by Pompey fans, blew up and out of the ground as we queued at the turnstiles to get in.
Pompey were second in the table behind Derby County and ahead of Oldham Athletic in third. A point would secure promotion to the top flight for the first time in 28 years.
There were around 10,000 Pompey fans at Selhurst Park that day in a crowd of just over 18,000. It was Palace's biggest gate of the season to that point, they were chasing a play-off place.
As is often the way I can recall little of the game other than the moment an up-and-coming striker called Ian Wright scored a very late winner to secure a 1-0 victory for the home team.
Just prior to that goal being conceded the Pompey fans had started to celebrate promotion...albeit prematurely. I seem to recall the terrace was awash with all sorts of inflatables and as Palace scored the Pompey fans hushed and the inflatables all disappeared from view. Amazing. Surely after going so close to promotion in the previous two seasons it wasn't going to be snatched away again was it?
Interestingly, looking through a few of my books and programmes there was a Pompey 'goal' (by Paul Mariner) disallowed during the game for offside (which I'd forgotten about, Micky Quinn was the offender).
Also, Vince Hillaire was sent off before the final whistle for a push on a Palace player (which I do remember).
Ian Wright's goal came in the 87th minute following a cross from a 17 year old substitute called John Salako (now on Sky). Palace also had Mark Bright playing for them (who now co-commentates on BBC Radio) and an Alan Irvine...not sure if that is the same person who was assistant to David Moyes at Everton before moving on to manager Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday, but I guess it's possible.
Pompey fans left Selhurst Park disappointed for the trip back down to the South Coast. But this turned to joy the following evening as Shrewsbury beat Oldham Athletic, who were in third place, 2-0. Pompey had secured promotion without kicking a ball.
I celebrated promotion with friends in The Rutland Arms (I can't recall anything about that either but I suspect a few pints were involved). I also suspect the Pompey players and staff celebrated hard that evening too...and probably the next...and the next...
The final home game of the season was against Sheffield United. Pompey lost 2-1 in front of 28,000 fans and someone climbed up the floodlight pylon pursued by a member of the local Constabulary. But that's a story for another day...
Enjoy these images from the matchday programmes of the Crystal Palace and Sheffield United games.
Front cover of the Crystal Palace programme:
Back cover of the Crystal Palace programme:
Alan Ball's column in the Sheffield United programme:
Chairman John Deacon's column in the Sheffield United programme:
Pictures of the Palace game from the Sheffield United programme:
Extract from the Fratton Scene column in the Sheffield United programme:
BlueThruAndThru
