Cardiff City travel to Portsmouth tomorrow looking to win their first Championship game against opponents who have that three pointer, at Lincoln, to their credit but also three losses to go with it. Being beaten at home by QPR is not such a terrible result based on what we saw there on Wednesday, but, taking Derby’s results and performances in their first three games into account, I’d be a bit concerned this morning about Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to them at Fratton Park if I were a Pompey fan.
That said, Portsmouth will be celebrating their first home win at 5pm tomorrow if City are as bad at the things they’re normally good at as they were at QPR where we escaped very lightly with a one goal margin of defeat.
‘Given that we’ve put ourselves in a position where “wholesale changes “ are not an option, I’d say that if, for example, BBM decided to go with the same starting eleven, eight of them would need to significantly up their performance because I thought only Trott, Osho and Bagan played to something like the level we’d seen from them in our first three league matches.
On to the quiz then, the answers will be posted on Sunday morning.
60s. “People’s Champion” seen at the back in the Portsmouth team during this decade later turns up at Gillingham, Bournemouth and Cambridge.
70s. Another defender, apart from his time at Portsmouth and a spell in South Arica at the end of his career, he spent all of his time representing London teams. Starting off as a seventeen year old at a club that I always feel doesn’t really know what colours it wants to play in, he was appointed team captain at the age of 20 and a promotion soon followed. At 24, he was transferred to a First Division club which, at the time, had something that no one else had for what Wikipedia describes as a record fee. Despite making more than 100 league appearances, all in the top flight, for his new club, he was never fully convincing it seems and, after a brief loan spell at a ground with a unique feature among the 92 then and now, he signed for Portsmouth where he played as a regular starter for three years before heading for South Africa, who am I describing?
80s. Amazingly, some twenty six years after making his first appearance for Portsmouth, he was still registered with them as a player – he also died this week, can you name him?
90s. Jottings initially related to the area where’ll you find Newcastle produce a defender who represented Southampton and Portsmouth in his time. (3, 7)
00s. He scored the only hat trick of his career while a Portsmouth player, but refused to accept the match ball after the game because his team had not won, he was, by his own admission, addicted to tobacco and once won a tournament while playing for a team called Moby Dick, who is he?
10s. Best Sherlock Holmes, in my opinion, meets member of Formula One team!
20s. Sounds like you’re In debt to Liverpool legend!
Answers
60s. Jimmy White was a centre half who signed for Portsmouth from Bournemouth in the late fifties, he stayed at Fratton Park before going to play for Gillingham,then he had a second spell at Bournemouth, where he played around 200 matches, and, finally, Cambridge United.
70s. Alan Stephenson was part of a Crystal Palace team which was promoted to the Second Division before moving on to West Ham, the only club team with three members of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team in its ranks. Following a loan spell at Craven Cottage with Fulham, Stephenson played for Portsmouth between 1972 and 75, before heading to South Africa to represent Durban United.
80s. Alan Knight holds the record for the most appearances made for one club as a goalkeeper with 801 in all competitions between 1978 and 2000 and was still occasionally being selected as substitute keeper for Portsmouth in 2004. Knight’s death, from prostate cancer, was announced on Wednesday.
90s. Jon Gittens.
00s. Robert Prosinecki was part of the winning Moby Dick team in a prestigious mini football tournament in Croatia in 1998 while still registered as a Croatia (Dinamo) Zagreb player.
10s. (Jeremy) Brett Pitman.
20s. Eoin Kenny (Dalglish).
