The good, the bad and Paul Hart: Memories of covering 1,000 Portsmouth games at one of football's craziest clubs

Stranded outside Loughborough sitting in a News pool vehicle whose engine was now dead, never to be resurrected, I contemplated whether my career would suffer the same fate.

It was November 2001 and I had been sent on a solo mission to Sheffield Wednesday, entrusted with producing my first Pompey match report.

There had been previous involvements, of course, eight months earlier I’d carried out a Steve Claridge watch from West Brom’s away end.

The Blues favourite had been sacked as player-manager days 48 hours earlier and replaced by Graham Rix, yet, brutally, was asked by chairman Milan Mandaric to still oversee the Division One fixture alongside assistant Guy Whittingham.

However, the following season’s trip to Hillsborough represented my full debut in the Pompey chair.

In the absence of holidaying chief sports writer Mark Storey, I had been tasked with carrying out Sports Mail and The News reporting duties - except I was now marooned in Leicestershire and without means of getting to the match.

Fast forward 23 years later and, upon the occasion of my 1,000th game in Tuesday night’s encounter with Cardiff, it’s abundantly clear that I survived that nightmarish Blues bow.

Subsequent seasons saw me involved in the coverage of three Pompey promotions, three relegations, two FA Cup finals, two EFL Trophy finals and a High Court case, while working with 17 different permanent bosses and watching them play in 151 different venues.

Yet that future was far, far in the distance as I raced towards the home of Sheffield Wednesday while on the phone to copytakers filing my Blues pre-match team news, having been dropped off at a nearby cashpoint by a taxi driver.

I settled down in Hillsborough’s press box just in time to see Yoshi Kawaguchi concede 26 seconds into his Pompey debut. Thankfully I lasted longer in Blues circles than the one-time club record signing.

Still, Graham Rix’s side won 3-2 that day, with Peter Crouch scoring twice. Although my abiding memory of the actual match was catching sight of Robert Prosinecki outside the dressing room afterwards, puffing on a cigarette.

Incidentally, BBC Radio Solent’s Tony Husband kindly provided a lift to my then-Southsea home. As for my car, it was written off after a faulty light had failed to alert me to the fact there was no oil in the engine.

I had arrived at The News in November 2000 after spending two years as primarily a news reporter at now defunct weeklies The Sutton Coldfield Observer and then The Sunday, both based in the Birmingham area.

Replacing Bradford City-bound Simon Parker at The News Centre, my responsibilities primarily centred on covering Southampton in the Premier League and Hampshire County Cricket Club.

On occasions, I was taken to Pompey’s training ground by Mark Storey. He forewarned me that Linvoy Primus was the friendliest footballer you could wish to meet. After they exchanged Beverly Knight CDs, I soon discovered he was absolutely spot on.

Indeed, over the course of my time covering Pompey, I can honestly count on one hand how many genuine bad eggs I have come across in terms of players. Tal Ben Haim and Jermain Defoe are obvious inclusions, judged entirely on their spells at Fratton Park.

Another highly approachable footballer in those early days was Crouch, who secured a £5m switch to Aston Villa in March 2002, a windfall which would fund Harry Redknapp’s squad strengthening for the memorable First Division title-winning season the following year.

Just four weeks after Crouch’s departure, Southampton’s trip to Villa Park represented the perfect opportunity for me to hand over The News/Sports Mail’s Player of the Season trophy to its newest recipient - the towering striker.

Collaborating with Villa, it was arranged for me to present the honour to Crouch on the pitch before the game, with the PA System announcing the moment to the 35,255 crowd. Not that those Southampton fans present were particularly impressed.

Still, as a lifelong Villa fan, I hold the unenviable distinction of being booed while on the sacred Villa Park turf.

Pompey arrived in the Premier League for the 2003-4 season and so began a golden era in the club’s modern history, culminating with seven seasons in the top flight of the English game.

During that wonderful period, the Blues captured the 2008 FA Cup against Cardiff, with Kanu the matchwinner. Incidentally, in the build-up, the mercurial Nigerian walked out of pre-match interviews held at the Wellington Sports Ground after a national journalist had queried his age.

According to folklore, some 200,000 people turned out to cheer Pompey players on their Southsea open-top bus tour the following day. Behind them, a second bus contained family members as well as local media - but sadly not The News’ sport desk.

While our news desk had submitted press accreditation to be allowed on the media bus, they had forgotten to include us sports reporters who actually covered the club.

Undeterred, I managed to enter the enclosure behind the Southsea Common stage, where all the players had gathered following their trip around the city. Although I ripped my suit trousers in the process, after clambering over a fence.

When Harry Redknapp walked out on Pompey to join Spurs in October 2008, he returned to Portsmouth three days later to collect the Freedom of the City, along with the FA Cup-winning squad.

Curiously, the club informed us their former manager was off-limits to interviews on the historic occasion. Naturally, I approached him anyway, with Harry happily obliging, until three Portsmouth Guildhall security stewards brusquely intervened.

I was subsequently frogmarched outside, yet, during my departure, I glanced behind to see Redknapp instead holding court with three other journalists, gleefully mopping up his every word.

Even in times of such success, the relationship between The News and Pompey was strained. We were already serving a ban when I took over as chief sports writer in July 2007 - with another two following over the next two years.

One of which was in October 2009 following a goalless draw at Hull, when manager Paul Hart and director of communications Gary Double had taken exception to my match report detailing how the attending Avram Grant was looming to take Hart’s place.

Admittedly, using the phrase ‘dead man walking’ was rather blunt and, in hindsight, entirely unnecessary, as rightly pointed out to me at the time by Mark Storey. There’s a lot to be said for a little diplomacy.

For a while, I borrowed a friend’s lifetime season ticket, donned a baseball cap to avoid detection and sneaked into the South Stand for games, before writing up my match reports from home.

Sure enough, exactly a month after the ban was implemented, Hart was replaced by Grant. Although I had to watch his press conference unveiling on Sky Sports while sat at home - as Double refused to lift the suspension. It was that sort of relationship.

This remained in place for Grant’s first match in charge against Manchester United, which I ended up covering for an Israeli newspaper while watching from the Fratton End. Using a ticket in somebody else’s name, of course.

Incidentally, that Hull match report helped me win two awards in 2010, including Sports Journalist Of The Year at the NUJ Regional Press Awards. Thank you, Paul Hart.

At least that relegation season ended on a high, with another FA Cup final trip to Wembley, where Pompey faced Chelsea in May 2010.

With the Blues having been put into administration by Balram Chainrai, it was galling watching the Hong Kong money lender sit in the Royal Box alongside Prince William, while his son was among the mascots.

Regardless of a 1-0 defeat to the Premier League champions, with Prince Boateng missing a Blues penalty, Grant’s players admirably shrugged off the financial implosion and ownership issues to produce a battling display.

Unfortunately, Chainrai wasn’t too enamoured with my subsequent match report and The News subsequently received a letter from his solicitor declaring their intent to sue for defamation.

As a consequence, that report remains off the Internet to this very day. Not that Chainrai followed through with his threat, which was actually a clever intimidation tactic.

It wasn’t until the High Court case in April 2013 when fan ownership saved Pompey from liquidation that Portpin, consisting of Chainrai and Levi Kushnir, were finally removed from Fratton Park.

It was an emotional afternoon when the verdict was delivered by Mr Justice Peter Smith, with supporters inside the court room crying and embracing amid touching scenes, with celebrations continuing in the nearby Ye Olde Cock Tavern in Fleet Street.

Of course, not all Pompey fans were behind the Supporters’ Trust’s attempts to fight Chainrai. One character, who falsely claimed to have bought two Trust shares, threatened via Twitter to break my legs at a charity five-a-side event at the Mountbatten Centre designed to raise important funds for the Trust.

As it was, he failed to turn up, which is a shame as I always relished a tackle in my playing days. Perhaps it was for the best, mind. Unbeknown to me, a group of Pompey fans, including Cal Metcalfe, had also turned up, eager to have a little word with him having read his intentions.

It epitomised social media, yet also demonstrated the remarkable community spirit at that time, with fans rallying together, standing side-by-side to save their football club against the odds.

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Despite the severity of the situation, with Pompey’s future at stake, it was a special period. As SOS Pompey stalwarts Bob Beech and Brendon Bone still utter: ‘Those that know, know’.

In terms of managers, it was Paul Cook who initiated the Blues’ rebirth, having taken over Pompey following their lowest finish in the club’s Football League history in 2014-15.

During his first pre-season in July 2015, along with Dan Smith from the club’s media department, I was invited to spend 24 hours covering Pompey’s four-day training camp in the Vale de Lobo, in the Algarve.

Upon arrival, I bumped into Cook in reception, who enquired on my behalf whether my room was ready and, when discovering it wasn’t, kindly offered his room to shower and change in and leave my bag in.

We subsequently watched the team train and, exceptionally early the following morning, then marvelled at them being beasted in a beach session running up sand dunes and into the sea, before we returned home.

I recently discovered through Kyle Bennett that those were the only two occasions the players actually trained during their stay in Portugal, instead focusing on heavy drinking and team bonding. The canny Cook had staged those sessions entirely for the media’s eyes.

The following summer’s 2016 pre-season in Dublin is the stuff of folklore, with Cook’s men working hard and playing hard - with The News also in attendance as observers.

One evening, the bulk of the squad were left stranded in Sligo by the coach driver after they refused to leave a drinking and karaoke session, thereby having to negotiate the two-hour journey back for themselves.

Pompey’s gregarious chairman Iain McInnes was also present that week, with his wife Jane declaring at one point “Is this a Stag Do?”.

Still, the team bonding had the desired effect as the Blues clinched promotion to League One at Notts County with three matches remaining. Celebrations continued in the Victory Lounge as players and fans toasted the success side by side.

The party then moved to Drift, with Gary Roberts inviting the local media to join them, although I was driving. Still, I gave Cook and his wife a lift and, upon entering the bar, we were greeted by a manic bare-chested Michael Doyle, swirling his shirt above his head and playfully slapping my face. Incidentally, he never made it to the casino afterwards after being refused entry.

Sadly I had to decline the offer of shots from Carl Baker, who was making excellent use of Roberts’ credit card, but other members of the press pack gleefully indulged.

The subsequent capture of the League Two title a few weeks later following the 6-1 hammering of Cheltenham remains the favourite of all my 1,000 Blues games covered.

Having occupied a front-row seat during Pompey’s breakneck plummet down the leagues amid threats to their ongoing existence as a football club, the climb back tastes so much sweeter.

Now the ever-impressive John Mousinho has restored the Blues to the Championship, albeit an entirely different world to the one last inhabited under Michael Appleton 12 years ago.

Times have changed, journalism has changed and I now own a Hyundai Kona. Yet Pompey are still Pompey. So gloriously unpredictable, so infectiously passionate, so beautifully alive. This is a remarkable football family who have adopted a Nuneaton lad who supports Villa and Warwickshire County Cricket Club, welcoming him into their home. Thank you.

The island city with a football club for a heart - and it’s a privilege to continue being part of it.