No. 26: Fratton Park [Portsmouth]

Saturday, 28th February 2015
Portsmouth v. Oxford Utd [League Two] 0-0

After two months with barely a spare weekend in the country, it was time to go and watch Oxford again, who were this weekend away at Portsmouth - a ground I have visited a couple of times already.

This isn't getting me any nearer to completing the 92, but I had to go and see my own team at some point. And I'm glad I did. Last season, Oxford's visit to Portsea Island (for Portsmouth is an island-city) was an opening weekend 4-1 trouncing of the League 2 new-boys. It wasn't quite so exciting this time around, but it was far from a borefest that a 0-0 scoreline might suggest.

The City of Portsmouth has an embarrassment of riches for a tourist visitor, as long as you enjoy your pre-match culture with a nautical theme - This place really is Maritime Central. Even the council flats give a nod to the city's naval heritage.

Drake House: A Nautical Block of Council Flats

So what better place to start the day with than a visit to the excellent Historic Dockyards down on Portsmouth Harbour? What indeed.

The Historic Dockyards in the midst of the the working naval base still dominating the city, are a magnificent tourist attraction. It has a number of historic vessels for you to walk around - from the Victorian era Iron-hulled HMS Warrior to a WWII era Submarine, and a plethora of museums and interactive attractions and naval landmarks. It also has a nice Pirate. Yaar.

HMS Victory: Historic.

But the main attraction has to be the guided tour aboard Nelson's flagship HMS Victory, an amazing place to be able to step aboard and try to imagine what it must have been like for the 821 sailors manning the guns as French & Spanish cannon-shot was whistling through the timbers during the ferocious Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. A truly amazing, atmospheric space and worth anyone's time bending down under the 4ft high beams to tread on her creaking boards.

Quite bizarrely I was accompanied on the tour by 20 drunk Icelandic men who were accompanying former Pompey legends David James & Hermann Hreiðarsson, who were guests at the game later that day.

James & The Hermanator: Naval Punishment Fans.

Here are the footballing cult heroes, stood behind the cat o' nine tails on the upper Gun deck. Their Icelandic guests were fun but rather too boisterous for the beleaguered tour guide I think. At one point, one attempted to jump on a fibreglass replica cannon to ride it rodeo-style, before the guide discouraged him.

'Enry The Eighth, He Is. With Another Red-Faced Bloater.

There was just enough time to also have a gander around the Mary Rose museum. I remember coming to see this as a nipper, not long after Henry VIII's pride & joy had been raised from it's watery grave in The Solent in 1982.

Back then, I remember being a bit disappointed that it was just a rib of timbers being constantly drenched in water to keep the wood from disintegrating. Well, since then, they have started drying the wood out, built an amazing, well-realised multi-million £ museum to house it, and, well...it's still just a rib of boring old timbers to be quite honest.

Mary Rose: Underwhelming.

Still, they are 500-year old timbers, I suppose. I don't want to put you off, it is a great museum! Enough of the culture though - it was time to get to Fratton Park.

Portsmouth's naval heritage have lent the city a "rough & ready" reputation and true enough, this is a tough old city full of tough people. Even the Bus Station on the waterfront is called the "Hard Interchange".

Hard Interchange: Don't fuck with these buses.

Leaving my car at the Harbour and bypassing the buses, I decided to take the train across the city to the home of Portsmouth FC, 2 miles & a 10-min journey across Portsea Island to the district of Fratton.

Fratton is a little run-down it has to be said, but like many classic old grounds of the Football League Fratton Park is built amongst the houses of a working-class district, and it will be a sad day should Pompey ever move out of here and build an identikit bowl on the outskirts of the City.

Fratton Park entrance on Frogmore Road.

Portsmouth is also famous for having a rather conspicuous fan called John "Portsmouth Football Club" Westwood. You all know who he is, he's probably the most famous football fan in the country. So I don't need to stick his picture up here.

I did bump into his mate Paul though outside the ground who allowed me to take his picture and told me he was John's mate. Gotta love a character!

Pompey Paul: Character.

After arriving near the ground I headed to the home pub on the corner called the Shepherd's Crook, where I met up for a brief beer with a Pompey mate and discussed Oxford and Portsmouth's mutual up and down (mainly down) seasons so far, and then it was onto the ground to soak up the game.

I love Fratton Park. I'm getting a bit boring now going on and on about all these rickety old grounds having character but it's true. There is nothing like watching a game standing on cracked, moss-covered concrete and underneath a rusting tin roof that carries the sound of the noise beneath it. And the Milton End here is a cracking example of that.

Milton End: Oxford Fans Under Guard.

Getting a great atmosphere in a ground needs a crowd as well of course - and 16,355 happy souls squeezed through the turnstiles for this League Two encounter, including 1,300 visiting fans.

Just think about that for a minute - that's 16,355 for a game in the Fourth Tier of English football. That is a level of support that I think I'm safe in saying you would never see in any other country in the world. For me this is just one reason why the '92' and The Football League is such a unique institution we should treasure, and why the campaign against League 3 was so important.

Portsmouth's Fratton Park.

The main reason for this sort of crowd of course is because Portsmouth are the epitome of a club currently "punching below it's weight". Their fall from grace from established Premiership team and FA Cup winners in 2008 has been unprecedented in it's velocity and it's soap-opera qualities.

Top flight to Fourth Tier in four miserable, heartbreaking seasons for the Pompey fans, moving from administration to administration, player exits and point deductions that made each season a write-off and relegation a near-certainty in August.

Looking towards Fratton End & South Stand. Game in Progress.

But as they reached their lowest ebb with relegation to League Two for the start of the 2013-14 season a certainty, they seemed to turn a corner. The Pompey Supporters Trust gained control of the club and 10,000 season tickets were sold for their inaugural season in the bottom tier of the Football League - a record for this level.

Two seasons in and they don't look likely to be springing straight back up as quickly as they descended here, but I reckon a bit of mid-table stability might be a welcome relief from the 'excitement' of recent years.

The Back of the Milton End: Fans Head Home.

The game itself had plenty of goalmouth incidents, was played at a great pace and but for a couple of acrobatic saves from Oxford keeper Ryan Clarke, and a number of scuffed chances and lack of a final ball from the visitors, this might have been a high-scoring draw. Both teams I'm sure will have settled for a point in the end in the bid to maintain some mid-table security as the end of the season approaches.

Spinnaker Tower: Iconic.

Post-match, it was an easy trek back to Fratton station and within minutes I was on the train for the short ride back to the Harbour, where I had a wonder through the rather pleasant 21st Century premium retail, leisure & residential development of Gunwharf Quays.

Gunwharf was opened in 2001 and has added a little colour to this otherwise functional corner of the city - and it's done it in a way that doesn't take anything away from the history and gravitas of the nearby dockyards - it's modern but stylish, and I have to say I quite liked it!

It's topped off by the iconic Spinnaker Tower of course, a 170m landmark that can be seen from much of the city and in an obvious nod to the maritime traditions of the city resembles a sail billowing in sea winds. Very nice.



A quick Wagamama dinner (gotta love their firecracker chicken) at the end of the Quays looking out over the Harbour towards Gosport and my day in this fair city was at an end. Time to head back on up the A34 north.

Gun wharf Quays Waterfront: Very Nice.

Truth be known, I rather like Portsmouth as a place to visit and it's reputation as a tough old town, although deserved in many regards, also does this fine city a disservice. It's a city on the up, with a  football club with aspirations to return to the upper echelons. I'm sure they will achieve it.

Next Week...BACK ON THE 92 CLUB TRAIL... VENUE TO BE CONFIRMED!