This is the second year of PompeyChicken's Hatvent Calendar! It's a bit like an online Advent Calendar.
It's been inspired by the Innocent Drinks company who have been putting little woolen hats on their bottles of smoothies as part of The Big Knit, in aid of the charity Age UK.
You may have seen them on sale in Sainsbury's or Boots. PompeyChicken's family has been drinking a lot of smoothies recently! Each hat seems to fit perfectly!
Last year's Hatvent Calendar made connections between each hat and Pompey.
Underneath each new hat this year, PompeyChicken will unveil a favourite Pompey video clip. There will be one hat per day in the lead-up to Christmas.
You can read more about the Big Knit, which has been running since 2003, by clicking on the link at the end of this blog.
Enjoy!
POMPEYCHICKEN'S HAT OF THE DAY
TODAY'S POMPEY VIDEO
To start us off, here is a classic piece of Fratton Park action from 22nd December 1984 between Pompey and Oxford United.
The Pompey team that day was: Alan Knight, Gary Stanley, Mick Tait, Kevin Dillon, Noel Blake, Malcolm Waldron, Neil Webb, Micky Kennedy, Nicky Morgan, Alan Biley and Vince Hillaire.
The crowd was 22,446.
Colin Farmery in his book From Tindall To Ball A Complete Record (1999) writes about this match as follows: Going into injury-time against league leaders Oxford three days before Christmas, Pompey were a goal down. In 120 glorious seconds, added on for a pitch invasion by Santa Claus, Biley buried two headers and secured an improbable victory amid scenes of delirium.
Click on the image below to view the video and look out for some great scenes including: the masses of fans standing on the terraces, the mud in the Milton End goalmouth and the advertising hoarding for Bobby Tambling Sports!
Martin Tyler is the commentator. The video has been viewed quite a few times and people have made some very good comments which are well worth reading too. Great memories from the 1980s!
Video originally posted on YouTube by: PETE1201
Video duration: 6 minutes and 57 seconds, LOL!
LAST YEAR'S HAT
Click on the following link to see last year's hat ==> 1st December 2010
WHAT IS THE BIG KNIT?
To find out more about Innocent Smoothies and the Big Knit you can click on the following link ==> The Big Knit
ALTERNATIVE VIDEO LINK
Click on the link here if you're having problems viewing today's video ==> Pompey 2-1 Oxford United 1984
LET'S NOT FORGET
There's a lot of serious 'stuff' going on at Pompey at present following Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI) going in to administration and we mustn't lose sight of that.
Once again the Club is in the news for all the wrong reasons and in that broader context the Hatvent Calendar may seem completely out of place.
My intention is to lighten the mood as we approach Christmas and highlight the best of Pompey and our fantastic fans. It's all a bit of fun and goodness knows we could all do with some of that in these dark times.
Please let me know if I've missed the mark: @PompeyChicken at Twitter.com
BlueThruAndThru
