Portsmouth Football Club
From ArticleWorld
Portsmouth Football Club is based in the Southern English City of Portsmouth. The team was formed in 1898 by a group of local football enthusiasts including author Arthur Conan Doyle, who also played as the club’s first goalkeeper.
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Origins
Portsmouth Football Club have enjoyed a history full of trials, tribulations and triumphs. Their spiritual home has been and still is Fratton Park, with there first game being played at the ground on September 5th 1899 against local rivals Southampton, having played their first professional match only 3 days earlier. Portsmouth only gained notoriety in 1930 after joining the top tier of English football for the first time.
Successful Years
Although the league season was largely unsuccessful, only narrowly avoiding relegation and enduring the biggest defeat of 10 – 0 against Leicester City, a record that stands to this day, the team managed to turn on the form in the cup reaching the Final of the F.A cup. They were ultimately defeated in the final by Bolton Wanderers, but this kick-started the most successful period in the history of the club. Finishing 4th in the league next season, Portsmouth began to grow in stature, they reached their second F.A Cup final in 1933/34, once again being defeated this time by Manchester City. Portsmouth finally won the competition in 1939, convincingly defeating favourites Wolverhampton Wanderers. Due to the intervention of World War II Portsmouth held on to the trophy until the 1945/46 season, this is a record that stands to this day even if it is somewhat of mistruth. Although defeated in the F.A cup semi-final Portsmouth won their first championship in the 45/6 season and quickly followed it with a second in the next season. Thanks to this achievement Portsmouth are one of only 4 clubs to have won back to back championships in the post war era.
Faltering Club
From 1954 the teams fortunes began to change as they slowly sank down the league, before in 1959 they were relegated after almost 30 years in the top flight. Years of decline followed with ageing players and the loss of Championship winning manager Bob Jackson. The team bounced between the second and third divisions for years, and in 1976 almost had to declare bankruptcy before the intervention of local fans. In 1978 Portsmouth reached their lowest position after being relegated to the Fourth division. But only 8 years later under the management of Alan Ball the club worked its way back through the ranks to take it’s place in the top division once again. They were promptly relegated to the second division where they would remain until 2003. During this 16-year period the club narrowly avoided bankruptcy once again, avoided relegation to the new second division, reached an F.A cup semi-final against Liverpool and narrowly lost out to West Ham in gaining promotion to the Premier league.
Premiership Football and upheaval
Portsmouth have been in the Premiership for 3 seasons despite intense struggles and most pundits predictions. The club has continued to go through massive changes, with owner Milan Mandarich selling 50% of the club to Russian-French millionaire Alexandre Gaydamark in January 2006. Losing manager Harry Redknapp to fierce rivals Southampton in November 2004, before bringing him back in December 2005. In the course of the year in which Redknapp was absent, the club had 2 managers, Velimir Zajec and Allain Perrin, neither of whom made any significant improvement to Redknapp’s squad. In the 2004/5 season Portsmouth recorded on of their most famous victories defeating Southampton 4 –1 in the latter stages of the season, effectively sending Redknapp and Southampton down to what is now known as the Championship. Portsmouth’s 2005/06 campaign has seen them falter distinctly with the club stuck in the relegation zone for much of the season, Gaydamark’s millions have allowed Redknapp to invest heavily in new talent, purchasing a staggering 9 players during the one month transfer window in January. These players include record signing Benjani for $7.4million, but it remains to be seen whether this intervention can save them from returning to the second tier once again. Portsmouth’s home, Fratton Park, has also begun to receive a facelift with development underway to rebuild the crumbling stadium, making it into a place befitting of a top flight team. The plans include rotating the pitch and creating extra seating capacity, increasing it to over 30,000 over the course of a few years.