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Portsmouth - FA Cup winners 2008

You've just got to love the title, haven't you? I could have gone for something more witty, more descriptive, but to be honest, I won't tire of seeing this for an entire summer.

However, there's just one thing that clouds my elation (besides the hangover). I've been happier.

I couldn't be more scared

For once, the time is over for rational decisions, weighed-up thought and decent debate. This is the FA Cup Final, this is the time when a domestic trophy that comes second only behind the Premier League title is up for grabs and we want it.

The match of my life

I doubt I am the only Pompey fan of my generation - first game September 1970 - wondering whether Saturday May 17, 2008 could well be "it".

FA Cup final? Pah.

I know I've been away for a while. I can tell by the angry glances I get on the tube (which I know are to do with the fact I haven't posted in a long time, and nothing to do with my choice of 'art' magazine). I could blame the fact I've had a massive job change, and haven't been in the country. I could blame the fact I was without internet for a very long time.

But the truth is, I've been too disappointed with my team to say anything.

You could say things are looking up

Things are rosy at Portsmouth Football Club. According to a source well-placed inside the club, everyone is wandering along with meaningful smiles on their faces, smelling of roses. David James and Glen Johnson regularly have little chats about their respective afros, and apparently Mr Redknapp has been seen on more than one occasion skipping across the training pitch.

View from the other side

Now, this article began life as a comment on the excellent article by the Newcastle expert, entitled "Sky, Setanta and Looking After Your 'Customers'", which you can read by clicking the link at the top of this piece. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt compelled to write something in agreement. And I am just that, completely in agreement. Games being shifted at the last minute (and three weeks til kick off is the last minute when you have already made and paid for travel arrangements) is just a kick in the teeth of the ardent fans, i.e. the ones that bolster the club with their hard earned cash.

'We were robbed' - Pompey make Fergie cry

I'm so happy. So bubbling with unadulterated ecstasy that I don't actually know what to do with myself. I haven't even gone out and got drunk, as the seemingly never ending high of the final whistle on our 1-0 win over Manchester United keeps replaying in my mind.

The new dawn looks slightly murky

After extensively studying the footage of the Everton game and listening to the comments of Monsieur Rouge-sommeil (That's Redknapp in French. I'm feeling pretty cultural after eating a croissant and a croque-monsiuer this morning) I can safely and definitively say Pompey may or may not qualify for Europe this year. Definitely.

Thinking of jacking it all in

There's a lot to be said about football these days. And that amount now doesn't spout from the mouths of the man on the terraces, the outspoken chap down the pub or even the match commentators. The death of football has long been prophesised, and I fear it will go the same way as a certain Ms Spears. Some days (and recently, more than usual) I wonder why I even bother turning up to games.

This is beyond belief...

Despite being about 400 hours behind on my current deadline at work, the events which seem to be transpiring on the rumour boards compell me to take a lexical stand before the transfer window slams shut and I am proved right or wrong.

Diarra should be set for starring in the reserves

Not only am I despondent at the realisation that Matty Taylor, one of the last of the 'through and through' Pompey players, has left our beloved brethren, hearing the words spoken by Lassana Diarra when he became the latest addition to the Blues' family has incensed me enough to write about it. Yes, it's that serious.

Thanks and good luck Harry, but you are mad

Will or won't he? As Harry was whisked away from the Pompey training ground today without giving his usual pre-match press conference, speculation is at fever pitch about whether he is about to walk out on the club for a second time and go to Newcastle.

The question for me though is not whether he stays or goes. When Redknapp came back to Pompey in 2005 it was a marriage of convenience. He was out of the limelight in the Championship and we were careering headlong towards relegation from the Premiership.

The lions need to be tamed

It should be noted before reading this piece (if indeed you choose to do so) that I am, unequivocally, an England fan. The Portsmouth side of me lives in another part (possibly Africa/Russia/France, if our players and ownership are anything to go by). The England team need a good kick up the backside, but this isn't a rant about the structure of footballing in this nation. No, I say England need to drop a few places (and by a few I mean about 30) in the FIFA rankings before they have a chance of winning something.)

The Watford Gap

The onslaught of cash being injected into the Premiership is about to change the face of relegation and promotion. Don't get me wrong, nothing would make me want to see Portsmouth go down, but there could be a substantial advantage to going down if the case of Watford is anything to go by...

When heart and mind collide...Pompey pay the penalty

Why oh why do Pompey have to do this to the fans? Yes, the team is flying high. Yes, the position is a brilliant position to be in compared to two seasons ago blah blah blah...but missing a penalty in the last few seconds always hurts. FACT.

Life at the top...Pompey's noses are bleeding...

Fifth? FIFTH?? And not only that, PORTSMOUTH occupy that slot?? What is the world coming to. Just ten short years ago the notion of Pompey chasing the European spots would be akin to 'The porcine hangliding school' and 'Satan's igloos' coming to fruition. What a difference a decade makes.

Goals, goals, goals, but don't be fooled, this was no freak...

Typical. The day Pompey join a select band of Premier League teams who have scored seven goals, their achievement gets wrapped up in the ‘chaos’ of a record-breaking second-half goal fest, which makes this result sound more of a freak than the fantastic. As usual, the pundits struggle to sort out fact from fantasy. And, in a shocking example of lack of solidarity, I’m going to pick on the Sunday Times reporter at the game…

Farewell the 'Special One'. From the 'Special Two'...

I have an interest to declare: I can exclusively reveal I am actually Jose Mourinho's long-lost twin, as we share the same birthdate - Saturday (what else?) January 26, 1963. OK. He got the looks, the hair, the money and the fame and I'm merely world famous in Portsmouth, but I still love my 'brother' and will miss him now he's gone. So too will the rest of the Premiership...

Philosophy football is thirsty work

'One point gained or two lost?' That is the question as the regulars in Pompey's virtual pub chew the fat after Saturday's draw with Liverpool...

Am I fed up with Match of the Day? Just look at my face...

Ever since Pompey got in the Premiership I’ve been trying my hardest to give Match of the Day the benefit of the doubt. But Saturday night’s decision not to include John Utaka’s goal against Bolton in the August ‘Goal of the Month’ selection is the final straw.

Home comforts for 'calamity' James

You have to feel a bit sorry for David James. The outstanding English goalkeeper in the Premiership last season managed to earn a well-deserved recall to the England squad and looked set to replace the jittery Paul Robinson only to find himself on the wrong side of the headlines in his next outing for Pompey.

When pompey-fans.com met Gaydamak

Pompey's new reception area is swish to say the least. All discreet, recessed lighting, marble-effect counters (Or was it wood? Whatever it looked expensive) Sky news and Sports on 42" plasma screens and plush velour 70s style swivel chairs, in a waiting area with coffee-table magazines, strewn across, well, a coffee table. Not cheap mind.

New Pompey playing up a bit, but...

Even six months ago this might have been regarded as a point gained, so it is a measure of Pompey's progress that most fans will be mildly irritated at least that two points slipped away at Pride Park on Saturday. Especially when you've just gone 2-1 up with seven minutes play...