Today's picture shows a beautifully made black and white striped non-bobble hat, the colours of Newcastle United, Juventus and the subject of today's blog Notts County the oldest football club in the world, formed in 1862.
Now, some of you will be looking hard at Pompey Chicken's photograph and saying: 'Hold on! That hat is actually dark blue and white stripes, there's no black at all!'. And you may well be right...but I don't have a story about Sheffield Wednesday or WBA and it's my blog and I've decided they're black stripes...OK?! They look black and white in a certain light anyway...in a dark room...with a paper bag over your head...and your eyes shut...
So, where was I? Ah, yes...Notts County.
Now, let's get a direct Pompey link out of the way: current Pompey manager Steve Cotterill was manager of Notts County when they were promoted last season from League Two to League One, picking up the reins on a rather odd season, although perhaps not as odd as the one Pompey had. So well done him. I hope he maintains the 'promotion habit'.
I saw Pompey play Notts County at Meadow Lane back in the 1992-93 season, April 17th 1993 to be precise. I went with some friends, one of whom lived near Nottingham so it was a 'home game' for him. My ticket cost nine pounds! Pompey were lying second in Barclays League Division One and looking good for promotion to what was to be the first season of the Premier League. Top of the table was none other than black-and-white striped Newcastle United under King Kev, who didn't have black and white striped hair in those days! In third place was West Ham United followed by Swindon Town and...Leicester City (grrrr!).
My matchday programme from the game shows that the Pompey team that day was: Alan KNIGHT, Andy AWFORD, Guy BUTTERS, Alan McLOUGHLIN, Kit SYMONS, Ray DANIEL, Warren NEILL, Mark CHAMBERLAIN, Paul WALSH, Guy WHITTINGHAM and Bjorn KRISTENSEN. Subs: Warren ASPINALL and George LAWRENCE (yes only two in those days and no goalkeeper!). That was a good team.
I don't remember too much about the game to be honest apart from the goal, a near post flick of a header by Walshie in the second half following a whipped in cross down the right flank from Bjorn 'Benny' Kristensen. It was in front of us jubilent fans. Pompey won 1-0.
Reading the notes in Colin Farmery's book Portsmouth: From Tindall To Ball, A Complete Record it sounds like Pompey were lucky on the day. Oh well, who cares, the fans went home happy - including me! It was a good away win and promotion was very much on the cards.
At some point during the afternoon, either before the match or at half-time, I remember the matchday compere on his microphone stood on the pitch in front of the away end wishing all the travelling Pompey fans good luck after we got promoted. Afterall, it was only a matter of time...only three games to go.
Sadly, Pompey didn't get promoted automatically, missing out on the second spot to The Hammers on goals scored and then losing out in the two-leg play off semi final to Leicester City. Grrrrr! That 'offside' goal at Fratton Park still wrankles even today. Swindon Town emerged victorious from the play-offs.
Pompey probably shouldn't have missed out on automatic promotion that season if other results had gone their way, in particular the 5-5 away draw against Oxford United when they were winning 5-3 going into added time.
How different it might have been for Pompey if they'd been promoted that season, with the Premier League (or the Premiership as I believe it was called then) just getting established. As it was they trundled along mainly in the lower reaches of the second tier for another ten seasons, narrowly avoiding relegation on three occasions and going through administration with debts of over 7 Million pounds (yes, that's right 7 Million or one John Utaka transfer fee - puts the 2009-10 debacle into perspective doesn't it where the debt was somewhere between 15 and 20 times that amount, I lost count once it went over 100 Million). They didn't get promoted until the 2002-03 season. But that's a story for another day...
Here's the matchday magazine cover:
Here's the teamsheet for the game:
And here's the ticket!
BlueThruAndThru
