Next Game – Portsmouth (away)

Yakubu

It was October when we played them at home and they brought to an end our best run of the season, an unbeaten run of ten league games. We have never fully recovered and from that game on we have won only 30 points from 27 games whilst Portsmouth have gone from strength to strength.

Needless to say there have been new signings since the Turf Moor meeting. Steve Stone made his debut on loan that day and having returned to Villa for a short spell he has now signed a permanent deal. So has Deon Burton from Derby who had a loan spell at Fratton Park earlier in the season.

Apart from Stone and Burton they have also made another couple of permanent signings bringing in former Charlton goalkeeper Sasa Ilic from Hungarian club Zalaegerszeg and also former Blackburn midfielder Tim Sherwood has signed from Spurs.

Three other players are currently there on loan. Markus Heikkinen from HJK Helsinki, Maccaba Haifa’s Yakubu and former Burnley target Stathis Tavlaridis from Arsenal.

In fact since taking over as manager in March of last year Harry Redknapp has introduced a total of 22 new players either on loan or in permanent deals.

With just five league games left they have been beaten only five times this season. Three of those have come at Fratton Park against current leaders Norwich and both Sheffield clubs and away games at Norwich and Franchise.

The home defeat at the hands of Leicester was a game that should never have been played with the pitch waterlogged and the two defeats against the Sheffield clubs have both been 2-1 with the winners coming late in the game from Michael Brown (United) and Michael Reddy (Wednesday).

This was probably the best of all seasons to go for promotion if the resource was available and there is no doubt that Redknapp has brought in some quality players and they are clearly the best team in the division.

Gianluca Festa

Their place in the Premiership would have been secured on Saturday had they beaten Sheffield Wednesday but the defeat means that the earliest the party can start will be at tomorrow’s final whistle.

They apparently looked nervous on Saturday but it was still a game they should have won and they were in front from the 20^th minute until 14 minutes from the end. Only Wednesday keeper Kevin Pressman kept the score down to 1-0 with a string of fine saves but after making a double substitution Wednesday equalised.

Pompey surged forward for the winner that would give them promotion but in stoppage time one of the subs, Michael Reddy, picked up on an under hit back pass from Gianluca Festa to provide us with one of the shock results of the season.

Portsmouth lined up: Shaka Hislop, Hayden Foxe, Gianluca Festa, Linvoy Primus, Kevin Harper (Arjan de Zeeuw 45), Paul Merson, Tim Sherwood, Nigel Quashie, Steve Stone, Svetoslav Todorov, Lee Bradbury. Subs not used: Gary O’Neill, Deon Burton, Yakubu, Lassina Diabate.

Portsmouth have scored a total of 85 league goals this season. Striker Svetoslav Todorov leads the way with 19 whilst midfielder Paul Merson has 11. A total of 16 different players have scored for them this season.

I don’t particularly want to join the Portsmouth party and would appreciate their champagne being kept on ice for a further three days if at all possible.

Click HERE to see the preview for the home game and HERE to see Portsmouth’s results this season.

He played for both

He signed as an apprentice for the club and immediately won a place in the reserve team. There was no doubt that the club had unearthed another great talent and people were predicting that he could even make a first team debut by his second season.

They were wrong because on the last day of his first season, on 13^th May 1967 he was called up for his debut against Everton. He was 16 years and 220 days old and just 46 days older than Burnley’s youngest ever player, the great Tommy Lawton.

But Lawton’s games were in the 2^nd Division and Thomas created a new record that remains to this day as the youngest player ever to play 1^st Division football for Burnley.

He only played three games the following season but Thomas was busy playing a starring role in the FA Youth Cup success, but playing as an inside-forward with Steve Kindon on the left wing.

Willie Morgan left in the summer of 1968 and Thomas became a regular in the side. He played some games on the wing, others inside, but he looked an exceptional player wherever he played. He was a superb crosser of the ball and England honours were predicted.

On his arrival at Burnley the scout who unearthed him Jack Hixon said he was the finest prospect he had ever seen. During his first full season he turned in some memorable performances, none more than in the 5-1 demolition of Leeds.

After the game Leeds boss Don Revie said that he was the finest talent in Britain and possibly the whole of Europe. At the time he had just celebrated his 18^th birthday. What a talent we had on our hands.

Sadly the young talent was unable to keep us in the First Division but was clearly going to be one of the players we looked to as we looked to return to the top.

In action for Burnley against QPR

We both went up but as Burnley went down again three years later Thomas and QPR came close to lifting the Football League title. England caps followed, courtesy of Revie, but amazingly only eight. In 1977 he moved to Everton.

Playing as an orthodox winger he provided goal after goal for Everton striker Bob Latchford and yet he failed to win any further call ups by new England boss Ron Greenwood.

A short spell at Wolves followed before he moved on to Canada and a couple of years with Vancouver Whitecaps. He returned to England and played for Middlesbrough before finally joining his last club Portsmouth. He made 31 league appearances for Pompey before becoming youth coach until 1987.

He played for a couple of non league clubs after that before hanging up his boots.

Dave Thomas played in just 157 league games for the Clarets scoring 19 goals. He had left the club by the time he was 22 but remains one of the finest talents I have ever seen in a Claret & Blue shirt.

Click HERE to see all our past results against Portsmouth that started with a 2-0 Turf Moor win in 1927.

Portsmouth 1 (Todorov 75) Burnley 1 (Johnson 20) – Nationwide League Division 1, Monday 1^st April 2002

David Johnson - scored the Burnley goal

It was a game the Clarets desperately needed to win after picking up just one point from three games and we started well. In fact we got on top almost from the first whistle and took the game to Portsmouth.

All we had to do was keep Robert Prosinecki quiet. The Croation star was playing well but getting no support from his team mates as Burnley dominated.

We were in front on 20 minutes through David Johnson who scored his fourth goal in only his fifth game for us and we looked all set for the win that was so much needed as the run towards the play offs was becoming a stumble.

Half time came and we were 1-0 up but with any luck would have been further ahead. What was said at half time we will never know but it was a different Burnley who came out in the second half.

We sat back, went deeper and deeper, and allowed Portsmouth to come at us. We remained in front only because the home side looked incapable of creating anything. Stan used all three subs, the second of which switched the system to leave Johnson up front on his own.

Then with 15 minutes to go disaster struck when Nik Michopoulos elected to go feet first for a ball and succeeded only in giving Svetoslav Todorov the easiest of chances. In the half hour played in the second half we had not had one single shot on goal.

That all changed now as we looked to try and get back on top but despite the superb promptings of the impressive Gazza it was not to be and with just three more games left we made it difficult for ourselves by throwing two points away.

The teams were,

Portsmouth: Dave Beasant, Scott Hiley (Stefani Miglioranzi 56), Scott Wilson (Courtney Pitt 73), Lewis Buxton, Jamie Vincent, Gary O’Neil (Leonardo Biagini 56), Robert Prosinecki, Nigel Quashie, Mark Summerbell, Svetoslav Todorov, Kevin Harper. Subs not used: Yoshi Kawaguchi, Garry Brady.

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Mitchell Thomas, Arthur Gnohere, Lee Briscoe, Paul Weller (Paul Gascoigne 68), Kevin Ball, Tony Grant (Gordon Armstrong 51), Alan Moore, Ian Moore (Glen Little 56), David Johnson. Subs not used: Paul Cook, Gareth Taylor.

Referee: Steve Tomlin (Lewes, East Sussex).