U-turn on Pompey's Fratton Park plans

Fratton Park is the spiritual home of Pompey and I loved every minute of a recent behind the scenes tour, thrilled to savour the atmosphere and the history. I also reckon the footballing superstars on the visiting teams must also be more than a little put out by the conditions both on and off the pitch. The 12th man, the Pompey fans, can exert real influence in the current stadium. I had accepted that the changes proposed under the chairmanship of Mr Mandaric were a fait accompli and my support would not have wavered. My heart tells me that Fratton is where Pompey is but my head tells me that if we are to become a footballing super team amongst the elite, which is where Pompey belong, we need facilities to match. I looked at the vote in the Portsmouth News before writing and as expected 50% were for staying at Pompey, the other 50% were split between the other two sites. It still means we are divided equally between those who want to stay at Fratton and those who feel a move elsewhere would be a good one. My address in Havant will make others presume I would choose Farlington, which is almost a stroll down the road. I would have no objections despite Brent Geese and Green Space Campaign, the means by which a previous application bid was dismissed. A government inspector decided that the proposed stadium was too near the breeding ground of brent geese in a nearby nature reserve. This threat to local wildlife does not seem to have detered roadwaorks and access to a new industrial estate actually adjacent to the nature reserve. Howver, going back to options for a newly located Pompey football club, my personal choice would be Tipner. The club would still be on Portsea, the stadium would rescue a site within the city in dire need of uplift and communications could be tied in with the existing road network. The rail network might be a problem but might be resolved by specialised bus links on match days especially if we are talking about a 35000 or 36000 seater stadium. The new Pompey stadium would be as striking a feature as Portchester Castle on the other side of the harbour and the Spinnaker Tower at the entrance.

I have been so moved that I have written my first email to the Portsmouth News expressing the above sentiments. Fire, riot, pestilence and diabolically stupid educational rulings from above have never moved me to print before but the future of Pompey football club has.

New Leaf Turning

Christmas approaches rapidly. Only another 60 working days, or twelve weeks, to go and I will retire from school teaching. This is a job I have been doing for 34 years ( I had six years in a previous life as a building society cashier before spending three years at a college of education as they were then known). It is strange, therefore, to be contemplating a new life. I am looking forward to it and not really enjoying the daily journey into school. I resent the amount of planning and preparation and the assessment that is needed just to stay afloat. Will I miss school? someone asked recently. No it will be good to stop and to get off the treadmill.

I haven't filled in application forms in years (was never very ambitious as a professional) and yet have just completed four over the last fortnight. I am trying to get on an agency's books as a film extra in January. There is no glitter of stardust in my eyes or vainglorious hope of being plucked to stardom from the crowd in the background of a scene. I would like to see how the film industry works and to gain some repayment for all those years spent in the darkened auditorium of cinemas. Cinema is one of my great passions and I am delighted to say one that is shared with my children. My younger daughter is even marrying a young man who is training to join the industry himself (she refers to him as Muleboy in her blog, from which I will refrain in mine, as I have no wish to offend).

I haven't heard anything back yet but most agencies close their books for 2007 at the end of September so there is still a chance. If no-one takes me up I will have to think again about what I am doing next year - but it won't be education in any form or fashion!

Play Up Pompey

Did I tell you in my profile or in previous blogs that I am a Pompey fan?

I have always been a Bradford City fan because that was where I grew up and in those days you supported your local team rather than a fashionable team seen on television. In fact I should have been a Bradford Park Avenue supporter because I came from a Catholic background and they were the Catholic team. However they went out of existence before I was into going to football matches. I didn't go to football matches until I was a teenager, having left school and earning a wage at the Provincial Building Society. My gran and mother, who were responsible for my upbringing (my parents having divorced when I was five), weren't into football and even though my Uncle Walter was a mandarin of the local football league, he was more interested in grass roots football than the stuff being played at Valley Parade.

My father was Irish Catholic and my mother was Yorkshire Methodist - which is a pretty lethal combination and, no pun intended but obviously one loitering with intent, led to a lot of soul-searching when I became of an age to wonder about religion. With reference to football, and I haven't researched this, I wonder how many of the teams can be divided on sectarian lines at least in their beginnings and origins. Liverpool, the Irish capital on the English mainland, has a red team (Catholic) and a blue team (Protestant). Manchester is another city with a large influx of Irish in times gone by and has a red and a blue team. North London, another Irish hotbed, has Arsenal and Spurs. I know the theory suffers here in that Arsenal is red and white and Spurs are not strictly blue. I feel the need for some research coming on me.

Anyway this blog was prompted by seeing Pompey in action yesterday. My son in law Nathan organised a couple of tickets in B row of the Milton End. These are seats where your nose is level with the surface of the pitch and you are between the goalposts and corner flag. Perhaps not the ideal position to be in if the action is at the other end (where Benjani scored yesterday) but enables you to vociferously (and I am nothing if not vociferous) encourage Pompey and abuse the other team. We paid £29 per seat for this privilege and the first half was dire. In the second half Benjani scored early on. I don't know what 'Arry Redknap said to them at half time but a different team emerged for the second half. We , that is, the crowd and especially those in the Milton End, helped preserve a clean sheet once again despite some close run moments. At one stage David James was haranguing his defence, loudly echoed by the MIlton End supporters, who could see everything from his point of view. He also won us over by his greeting as he he took up his position just after the interval. The Milton End is usually opposition territory but seats become available to Pompey fans if the other team don't take up their full allocation.

I loved the afternoon and Pompey are doing us proud at the moment. Glen Johnson is a rolls royce of a right back, Sol Campbell and Linvoy Primus (with David James behind them) are solid rocks in the centre of the defence, Davis is growing in strength from match to match, Benjani is tireless and rapidly becoming a class act, Kanu and LuaLua are players to torment any defence. We welcomed back Pedro Mendes and we still have Fernandes, Krajnac and Douala waiting in the wings, plus Andrew Cole recovering his fitness after injury and preparing some of that old goal touch magic. Play up Pompey!