Four years ago today

[Svlad Cjelli]

Portsmouth 7-4 Reading

Oh dear!

[PEARCEY]

Portsmouth 7-4 Reading

Oh dear!

..and also Fiji 38 Wales 34. I was a mizzy git that night.

[Zammo]

Portsmouth 7-4 Reading

Oh dear!

My Brother bought me the DVD from Pompey on-line. Oh, how I laughed

[grey_squirrel]

Portsmouth 7-4 Reading

Oh dear!

Shortly followed by Spurs 6 Reading 4

And we worry now!

Disclaimer: posted before the Boro game

[Ian Royal]

At least the Stelling - Kamara interchange that day was good, the rest of football certainly wasn't.

[Arch]

Shortly followed by Spurs 6 Reading 4

That, at least, was an immensely entertaining game. The Pompey game was just dire.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

The Hog roast was good in the pub that day.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

TBF, the game's pretty much a blur for me now.

Andy RFC's Pompey Pub Crawl pre-match ("Fawcett Inn Cider, sir?"), back to the Fawcett post-match with Compo cranking up the jukebox with Tom Hark for the LOL's, train to Guildford to meat Mrs Butler and then last train back to Reading and a cab to the AD.

Battered!

[Focher]

i was on a 6 hour flight during this game. i used to get the orange goal text alerts, got to the baggage hall, turned my phone on, and for the next minute i went through more emotion changes than i have in my entire life. Words muttered included "yes", "no", "get in", "cunters", "Dave Kitson what a bargain", "after that result i think its time to get pissed".

[Svlad Cjelli]

Shortly followed by Spurs 6 Reading 4

That, at least, was an immensely entertaining game. The Pompey game was just dire.

And that Spurs game was a turning point in the season - we should have had a draw there at least, but after the referee's error (*) in allowing Keane's goal when he was encroaching at the Spurs' penalty at 4-4 we lost our heads and fell apart.

The rest is history, the season went downhill from there. (Similar to the Boro League Cup Quarter final in 1998, when one match turned a whole season.)

(*) I went to a presentation the following summer by PLMO Ltd (who manage the referees) where they showd how they manage referees' performance with ProZone. One of the two referees' errors they analysed in detail at this was this very one, where Spurs were given a goal they shouldn't have had.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

The rest is history, the season went downhill from there. (Similar to the Boro League Cup Quarter final in 1998, when one match turned a whole season.)

Slightly disagree with that statement. It was the overriding contributary factor to us losing the next 7 league games however we subsequently won 3 of our next 4 (the loss being a decent performance at Anfield) and were pushing up the table.

We then failed to scored in our next 5 or 6 games (can't remember off the top of my head) - almost as if complacency had set in - our next goals coming at Pride Park.

So I think it's too simplistic to say the Spurs game turned the season.

[heathrow royal]

My brother left at 4-2 and when i returned to get my car afterwards it was only then he found out the full time score

[SWLR]

The Hog roast was good in the pub that day.

I picked up a curry from a street festival stand on the way to the station - stunk the train out!

[purleyroyal]

...after the referee's error (*) in allowing Keane's goal when he was encroaching at the Spurs' penalty ...

Defoe IIRC

[Svlad Cjelli]

OK, agree it's too simplistic to say that specifically.

Although we were relegated for lots of reasons, I just can't shake off the feeling that before that match although we weren't doing fantastically we were safe enough and no-one was really worried about us, and even in that match we should & could have at least drawn it and maybe won it.

But that one incident of the ref getting it so wrong seemed to knock the spirit out of us, and after that everything was inexorably downwards, with no other real high spots that season. If you were to plot spirit, optimism and results throughout that whole season onto a graph, that decision would be the point where the lines all started going downhill together. Before that match we'd got 22 points from 19 games - in the remaining 18 points we got 13 points.

Exactly the same as the Butcher of Bootle in 98 - on that day in Jan 98 we were comfortably mid-table, in the QFs of the League Cup and still in the FA Cup. Then that decision went against us and from that point everything was downhill - in a scarily similar way before that game we had 25 points from 25 games and after it we got 13 from 21 games.

[Svlad Cjelli]

...after the referee's error (*) in allowing Keane's goal when he was encroaching at the Spurs' penalty ...

Defoe IIRC

You're quite right.

[Wimb]

OK, agree it's too simplistic to say that specifically.

Although we were relegated for lots of reasons, I just can't shake off the feeling that before that match although we weren't doing fantastically we were safe enough and no-one was really worried about us, and even in that match we should & could have at least drawn it and maybe won it.

But that one incident of the ref getting it so wrong seemed to knock the spirit out of us, and after that everything was inexorably downwards, with no other real high spots that season. If you were to plot spirit, optimism and results throughout that whole season onto a graph, that decision would be the point where the lines all started going downhill together. Before that match we'd got 22 points from 19 games - in the remaining 18 points we got 13 points.

Exactly the same as the Butcher of Bootle in 98 - on that day in Jan 98 we were comfortably mid-table, in the QFs of the League Cup and still in the FA Cup. Then that decision went against us and from that point everything was downhill - in a scarily similar way before that game we had 25 points from 25 games and after it we got 13 from 21 games.

Craig F'Ing Hignett

Still, Morley needs to takes his share of the blame for that goal, as he was too busy arguing the point to focus on the game.

[papereyes]

We lost 7 or 8 on the trot at one stage that season.

The single worst thing about the Portsmouth result was people claiming we hadn't been hammered.

[Svlad Cjelli]

We lost 7 or 8 on the trot at one stage that season.

The single worst thing about the Portsmouth result was people claiming we hadn't been hammered.

Quite! It's almost as if there was an Icelandic Public Holiday that day because both Ivar & Bryn were utterly , utterly, rubbish.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

We lost 7 or 8 on the trot at one stage that season.

As I mentioned earlier - 8 in a row (in the league) starting with the 6-4 loss at WHL and ending with a 2-1 loss at home to Villa.

We did managed a 2-2 draw at WHL in the FA Cup 3rd round in that period (and lost the replay 1-0).