Dark Days - or a new beginning?

It has finally happened. A decade or more of poor management, short-sightedness and greed have caught up with my beloved Pompey and we are now in administration and surely doomed to relegation. Plenty has been said about the personalities involved in the surely temporary downfall of this great club and those involved will be cursed by Pompey fans for at least the rest of their days.

Now that administration has finally happened I feel bitterness - at the string of petty crooks who have played with club as if it were a bauble or a trophy girlfriend, and anger - at the officials of the Premier League, who have apparently been drugged by the wealth and glamour of modern football to the extent that any ex-con could pass the 'Fit and Proper Persons' test, let alone an Arab swindler or a Russian arms dealer. I also feel a sense of relief - an enormous weight has been lifted from the fans, the only innocent party in this whole sordid mess and the only ones who will be punished by the points deduction (a senseless punishment, in my view).

It is all rather sad, grubby and pathetic. And there are serious concerns about many other clubs, amongst them Premier League clubs, whose owners have lead them down a similar path to that which has seen Pompey stray dangerously close to the cliff edge. They must get a grip now while they still can. My first game was against Rotherham in August 1981. It was a rich mixture of mud, sweat and the odd flash of talent and I was hooked from the first minute of that 3-1 victory. David Gregory was an instant hero. Watching from the the well-behaved Family Enclosure in the South Stand, I immediatey wanted to be part of the noise and passion of the Fratton End, even today considered Britain's best group of fans, and some decades later it was a huge thrill to take delivery of my first Fratton End season ticket - ear-splittingly close to John Westwood and his famous bell. And my wild ride as a Pompey fan began.

It is easy to become addicted to success; Pompey fans loved every minute of our brief period inthe limelight. We spent decades in the lower reaches of the league - more than a decade in second tier alone - and suddenly found ourselves getting promoted to the Premier League, going to Wembley 3 times in as many months, winning the FA Cup, winning games in the UEFA Cup and establishing ourselves as a footballing force to be reckoned with. It was fun. And there may be some more fun to be had during the rest of this season. We still have the excellent Avram Grant, who seems to have fallen in love with the club, and it looks as if we will keep at least a few decent players. We may even get to face Harry Redknapp's Tottenham (Pompey in disguise?) in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley in what would surely be the most ironic game ever held at Wembley.

The future is out there. We should, at least, now survive as a club. We thought we had seen the last of grounds like Selhurst Park but we will be back at the top level one day.

Play Up Pompey!