This hat is red(ish) and black stripes - oh, yes it is! - and represents AC Milan.
I don't think any Pompey fan would ever have imagined playing AC Milan in a competitive game at Fratton Park but on 27th November 2008 that's exactly what happened. A combination of Pompey winning the FA Cup the previous May and AC Milan failing to make it in to the Champions League plus a bit of luck with the draw of the group stage saw the two teams drawn against each other in the Uefa Cup. Fantastic!
The game ended in a 2-2 draw, Pompey having been ahead 2-0 with less than ten minutes to go. Second half goals from Kaboul and Kanu in front of the Fratton End had given Pompey the lead.
Unfortunately, a dubious looking free-kick was given away outside the box by Richard Hughes, which is ironic as he has links with AC Milan, and up stepped Ronaldinho to score a fantastic free-kick past a scrambling David James in to the top corner. As soon as the referee blew his whistle he stepped up and took it, no delay, it gave him the added moment of surprise, a split-second, enough to make a difference. It was a great free-kick, the fans around me didn't know whether to curse or applaud in admiration. They probably did a bit of both.
Then with time running out and a famous Pompey victory in sight Inzaghi toe poked a late equaliser in front of the travelling fans in the corner of the Milton End following a hopeful ball forward from the Milan midfield that was poorly dealt with: 2-2. Dang - if only...
That goal knocked the stuffing out of Pompey's Uefa Cup campaign and despite remaining unbeaten at home during their brief participation in the competition, in hindsight this was probably the point when Pompey's expensively assembled stack of cards started to topple.
The game will go down in the annals of Pompey history as one of the great Fratton Park nights. The Pompey fans that evening were unbelievable, I've never heard the same level of noise that was generated that night, not even in Pompey-Saints games. It's become a bit of a cliche but that night the old lady really did rock. It was spine-tingling and still has that effect on me today when I watch highlights.
Here are some pictures of the matchday programme for that game:
And here's some of the pictures and a report from the programme for the Newcastle game on the 14th December:
And here's an extract from Chris Kamara's article in the Heerenveen programme on the 17th December:
And here are some clips on YouTube from the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3p8viM8_Q for Pompey fans on form as usual!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFg2Yjd4EmA for Pompey fans vs AC Milan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pic6ZmjjIqw for Fratton Park Atmosphere against AC Milan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKGCkC97n4g for highlights
BlueThruAndThru
