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I’ve been looking at Redknapp’s achievements and apart from being father-in-law to Eternal’s Louise it is somewhat difficult to find too much. He will though be creating a record this season for signing more players than any other club.
He took over on 25th March this year and by the time he took his place in the dug out for his first home game in charge against the Clarets a week later he had already signed long time Burnley target Eddie Howe from Bournemouth. Two loan players Scott Wilson and Mark Summerbell from Rangers and Middlesbrough respectively came in for the rest of the season.
During the close season in came Hayden Foxe (West Ham), Matthew Taylor (Luton), Richard Hughes (Bournemouth), Arjan de Zeeuw (Wigan), Shaka Hislop (West Ham), Carl Robinson (Wolves) and Paul Merson (Aston Villa) and you can add to that two more loan players in Vincent Pericard (Juventus) and Deon Burton (Derby). Burton though has returned to Derby with an injury but looks set to return to Portsmouth soon.
He hasn’t finished either and since the season started has added Gianluca Festa from Middlesbrough and Auxerre’s Lassina Diabate with Paul Ritchie (KKMC) and just this week Villa’s Steve Stone arriving on loan.
That is a total of sixteen new players in just seven months giving them a much different look than they had under Rix.
They had been struggling somewhat under Rix and having just avoided relegation to Division Two in 2000/01 season but had reached a lofty 15th when the change of manager came. The speculation had gone on all season and it was something of a major surprise within the game that he lasted beyond Christmas.
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There has been just one defeat and that came courtesy of a late Iwan Roberts goal in a 1-0 defeat against second place Norwich at Carrow Road. They dropped points in a 1-1 draw at Sheffield United on the second Saturday of the season and the only other side to pick anything up against them was Coventry last week in another 1-1 draw this time at Fratton Park.
The other ten have all been won and they are currently four points clear at the top with 32 points.
Against Coventry last week they lined up: Shaka Hislop, Arjan de Zeeuw, Matthew Taylor, Linvoy Primus, Gianluca Festa, Lassina Diabate, Gary O’Neil (Paul Ritchie 69), Nigel Quashie, Sletoslav Todorov (Mark Burchill 84), Paul Merson, Vincent Pericard. Subs not used: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Kevin Harper, Carl Robinson.
This was the first time this season that Portsmouth have not won at home and it could have been worse with Coventry the better side throughout and particularly in the first half. It was though Portsmouth who went in front through Pericard with Coventry’s Callum Davenport equalising. Both goals came in the second half.
Portsmouth seem to have had little difficult scoring goals, have scored in all but one game, hitting a total of 29 in 14 league games. Todorov and Pericard lead the way with five each and Merson is just behind with four.
Burnley have had a great week but there is no doubt that this game will give us our strongest test yet.
Click HERE for all Portsmouth’s results this season.
He played for both
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It should come as no surprise that Pointer joined the Clarets from the North East, so many players did and after a period on trial he signed at the age of 20. Within two months he had made his league debut at Luton and the week after he scored his first goal against Sunderland at home. Goals and Pointer went together and he scored 118 of them in league games for the Clarets and that is still a post war record.
He became an England international and it was he and club colleague John Connelly who scored the goals in a 2-0 win against Portugal that secured England’s place in the 1962 World Cup Finals in Chile. Pointer didn’t go to these finals, in fact he incredibly never played for England again.
In April 1963 he chipped an ankle bone in a game against Forest and was never able to hold down a regular place in the first team again. He moved on to Bury in August 1965 and then to Coventry (both for short spells) before signing for Portsmouth in 1967 where he was converted into a midfield player.
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He did return to Burnley as coach during Harry Potts’ second spell as manager for a time and was then with Bury for some time before retiring.
His 118 goals besides being a post war record has only ever been bettered by one Burnley player and that was George Beel with an amazing 178. He was a member of the 1959/60 Championship side and the team that played in the 1962 FA Cup Final.
Fondly remembered to this day the Turf Moor crowd gave him yet another magnificent reception last season when he made the half time draw.
League results in the last 20 years
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
a | |||||
1994/95 | 1 | h | 1-2 | 10,666 | Eyres |
a | 0-2 | 9,097 | |||
2000/01 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 15,494 | Weller |
a | 0-2 | 12,941 | |||
2001/02 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 14,123 | Taylor |
a | 1-1 | 18,020 |
Click HERE to see all our past results against Portsmouth that started with a 2-0 Turf Moor win in 1927.
Last Time in the League
Burnley 1 (Taylor 69) Portsmouth (Crouch 72) – Nationwide League Division 1, Saturday 10th November 2001
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At times it looked almost a continental game as both sides aimed to pass the ball around but with Grant and Cook on one side and Prosinecki on the other it was hardly surprising.
Portsmouth though defended in numbers against a Burnley side coming back into some form with the return of Glen Little from injury and they really did make it difficult for us to break them down.
Eventually and with just over 20 minutes remaining we finally got ourselves in front and it was another piece of artistry from Paul Cook who found Gareth Taylor’s head with another inviting cross. Taylor made no mistake.
That should have been it and would have been but for a little bit of bad luck when an attempted Portsmouth shot took a deflection straight to Peter Crouch who made no mistake. The lead had lasted just three minutes.
Despite all our efforts we couldn’t find another goal and the game ended in a 1-1 draw but the Clarets were set to win their next six. It was a game we should have won but having said that Portsmouth did have the knack of getting shots in on their rare attacks and Nik Michopoulos had to make four excellent saves to keep us in it.
He was far the busier of the two keepers with Portsmouth’s Japanese keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi having little to do.
The result did lift us though to 5th in the table from 9th. That kick off position had been just about our lowest placing all season.
The teams were:
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Paul Cook (Lenny Johnrose 86), Ian Moore (Andy Payton 81), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Luigi Cennamo, Kevin Ball, Brad Maylett.
Portsmouth: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Linvoy Primus (Jason Crowe 81), Scott Hiley, Alessandro Zamperini, David Waterman, Neil Barrett, Kevin Harper, Courtney Pitt, Robert Prosinecki (Steve Lovell 81), Lee Mills, Peter Crouch. Subs not used: Dave Beasant, Jamie Vincent, Tom Curtis.
Referee: Mr. Graham Frankland (Cleveland)