FA Cup Round 4: Saturday 23 January 1999 Portsmouth 1 - 5 Leeds United (Half-time: 1 - 2) Crowd: 18864 Referee: G Willard (Worthing)
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Portsmouth - Steven H

Well it was extremely comfortable in the end, the players were queuing up to shoot.

The team lined up something like...

         Korsten    Jimmy

Kewell   Ribeiro   Hopkin      Halle

Granville Wetherall Woodgate  Harte

A great atmosphere from the Portsmouth fans, singing all through the match right to the end. But what happened to the Leeds fans? Hardly a peep, even accounting for the open-end stand. Very strange. To the PFOTL (Pompey fan on the list) - its not usually like that!

They scored first at our end after Peron got past Harte down the left and crossed in, Woodgate and Wetherall somehow missed it and one of their players shot from 6 yards just out of Martyn's reach. The Pompey fans went wild and made even more noise and it looked like it was going to be one of those days. A minute later though Wetherall headed in from a Ribeiro cross, and then after 15 minutes we had a free-kick just outside the area. Harte hit a wonderful low shot round the wall into the left side of the goal. Harte was playing down the right again in the first half (with Granville on the left) and did well against limited opposition, then was switched to the left in the second half.

So 2-1 at half-time and we were entertained by the Leeds subs hitting the balls into the crowd, Clyde showing us just how good a striker he is.

At half-time Granville was thankfully replaced by Matthew Jones - who played much better then Granville. I hope Kelly comes back quickly because we need him.

Jimmy played a part in the 3rd goal. Hopkin I think laid it off to him on the right, he crossed low but it went straight through the crowded area to the other side where Kewell was waiting, and he stepped up and blasted in.

The 4th goal, from Ribeiro, should have been counted as an own goal. He shot left footed from the edge of the area, and either the keeper had it covered or it was going wide, I'm not sure, but the deflection took it in. By this time Portsmouth were only making occasional forays up the pitch. We were attacking and the players were keen to score plenty more. The 5th came from Wijnhard, who up 'til then had just continued his poor showing from previous games - the ball getting caught under his feet, tackling poorly, and not looking part of the team. Can't remember who passed to him but he finished very well, just nipping in and steering the ball round the keeper.

I remember someone saying that when Hopkin makes a mistake its usually a huge one, and that's spot on. He had as good a game as anyone, but sometimes his passes are so far out! But on the plus side he never lumps it forward, he always has time to do something creative.

Jimmy was desperate to score but messed up the easiest of chances. One- on-one with the keeper, just outside the 6-yard box, he curls it round the keeper and goal. He gets really frustrated when we score plenty and he doesn't score, but sometimes he only has himself to blame. That said his was a positive contribution to the team. When he had the ball running at defenders you could tell he was almost always going to get past, and he's aware of other players more than he used to be.

There were plenty of other efforts on goal, Kewell towards the end blasted over inside the area and Jimmy just missing out on the far port from a cross when he should have headed instead of waiting to shoot. Martyn also made a couple of first class saves, one a high dive to his right and one a low dive just pushing the ball round the post. Knarvik came on towards the end but didn't have time to do much.

It was quite suprising how good the team was considering the players out, but then Portsmouth were pretty poor. Maybe well get a decent test in the 5th round.

It was indeed a Wall of Noise... - John Barber

It was a funny old day yesterday. Got on a train at Clapham Junction about 11:40, and changed at Woking for a Portsmouth train. There was hardly a soul on it.

I was evesdropping on some New Age types, with their dogs further up the carriage. They knew all about the game, and one was talking about getting a Leeds scarf. However, our reputation still seems to be stuck in the early 1980s. They seemed to think that the Leeds fans would be coming down to smash up the town.

There was still hardly a soul on this train when it got to Fratton. Most unfootball like. Very errie. (I've just been struck by a total block on how how to spell to erie. Anyway it doesn't look right).

Struggled for a little while to link the locale to Guy's directions to The Connaught. I think he missed out the first street that you needed, but I soon sussed it. Found the Pub. Found some Listers in it. It was heaving with fans, but friendly as Guy promised.

Later on, getting to the Leeds entrance of the stadium, there seemed to be a lot more antagonism going on.

The Leeds end didn't have a roof on it, and consequently our noise dissipated into the atmosphere, and we couldn't compete with the Fratton Park Wall of Noise as promised by the MOTL (Matt on the List?).

I was most impressed, and not a little jealous, with the noise they generated. Three sides of the ground seemed to be hammering away at it for the entire match. Elland Road... if only. Also impressed with Steve Claridge, who took the abuse from our end in good humour, gesturing how close some of of their near misses were. Respect to the Cabbage.

Best off the cuff chants I can remember from our lot.

"You Only Sing When You're Bankrupt"

In Response to Pompey's "You're Not Very Good" we came back with "You've Not Very Rich".

And we did our own "We're Not Very Good" once we'd gone 5-1 up.

As for the game itself, Portsmouth, unlike their fans, were not very good. I never felt worried, even when they took the lead. The nice thing about our goals was that they were all different, hinting that maybe we've got a bit of versatility about us now. Once Portsmouth had completely collapsed midway thru' the second half, we should probably have got a lot more than five, but we did a lot of pissing about.

Don't do Scores on the Doors, but reckon Harry was Man of the Match.

Krap Nottarf - Andy King

5-1 says it all really, although I think the scoreline flattered us somewhat, the chances that were missed, and the passes that went astray could've given us a far more imposing scoreline.

The Fratton Wall of noise was quite impressive, although after the 5th went in it was more like a decorative rockery of sound.

Fratton Park must rate alongside Filbert Street for nastiest ground visited, Once inside the view wasn't too bad, although Nigel kept getting in the way during the first half.

Scores
Martyn 8 - Not much to do, unsighted for Pompeys goal
Harte 7 - Too depandant on his Left foot to play RB, well taken free kick. Settled into the game after scoring and looked far more comfortable in the 2nd half.
Woodgate 7 - Steady improves every time I see him
Wetherall 7 - Looked shaky at the back (lack of matches?) but always a threwat in the air at either end.
Granville 6 - Hardly put a foot right or wrong really.
(Subbed for Jones 7 better than Granville by a point!)
Halle 3 - Wasn't even aware he was playing until watching MOTD on Sunday morning.
Hopkin 6 - Needs some more passing practice, neatl turned a defender in the 2nd half and looked more surprised than the defender that he'd got past him
Ribeiro 7 - Battled hard, lucky goal
Korsten 5 - Looks off the pace and clumsy to me.
(Subbed for Wijnhard 7, he came was a sub, scored, and went home, i reckon he needs to play a few whole games and he'll be there)
Hasslebaink 8 - What a fat arse, tried very hard (too hard?) to score, best I've seen of Jimmy when he hasn't scored - ever
Kewell 9 - Every time he had the ball it looked like a scoring opportunity, ripped Portsmouth apart in my opinion.

Nice to be by the seaside - Adie T

As for the game at the weekend, well we started slow as seems to be the norm at present and then round our range with passes and a couple of players at least bothered to put their shooting boots on.

For their goal Harte got out trundled by their winger who pulled the ball back well miscontrolled (in Jimmy style) by Claridge and finished by Nightingale with Nigel having no chance and Harte over running the ball on the line. the Pompy wall of noise climbed another couple of storeys. Leeds came back strongly and within a couple of minutes won a corner, instead of waiting to get to the corner Harte got the ball from Hopkin and picked out a cross which was powered home by Wetherall, cue a few Leeds fans in the Pompy end being moved.

the next goal was started by a corner aswell, this time the untried ploy of playing the ball to Kewell on the edge of the box that nobody has seen before, this time however Kewell was fouled giving us a direct free-kick. Jimmy lined the shot up and a few of us in the corner started singing 'Ian Harte Harte Harte' who jogged (while he was sprinting) up to the ball and as the keeper jumped to his left Harte put the ball behind him and into the back of the next.

the rest of the first half was played out with Pompy having a couple of half chances. At half time Matthew jones came out in shorts to warm up with the bulk of the people round us trying to work out who it was, most people seemed to think it was Lee Matthews, when he came on he played well in a quiet sort of way, made some good tackles and passes and didn't make any glaring errors.

Throuhout the second half we looked as though we could score almost at will, unless the ball went to Jimmy. The third goal came when the ball went to Jimmy playing right wing who beat a man and then PASSED the ball across the goal to Harry who for once finished well. Brunos goal was a total fluke he got the goal with a huge deflection that sent the keeper the wrong way and the ball nestled in the back of the net. the final goal was from a pass by Harry which at first looked to have been under hit, but Clyde got on the end of it and finished very well. Following this Nigel made a couple of nice saves to really rub the salt into the wounds.

Hightlight of the day was the fact that pseudo Tommy came on for his debut.

Scores upon Doors

Nigel-Solid no chance with the goal 7
Harte-Messed up for their goal though improved looked better at LB 7
Granville-Solid and injured? 6
Woodgate-The boy is class, getting better on the ball 7
Wetherall-Good header and made some quality tackles 7
Bruno-Quiet though did score 6
Hopkin-Getting better all the time, better for being fit this season 6.5
Halle-Did what Gunnar does best plays with out being noticed 6
Kewell-Playing well at the moment, needs to learn when to pass and when to dribble good finish for the goal 7
Big Willie-Not bad for a first start, needs top get the pace of the english game 6
Jimmy-A constant treat even without those shooting boots 7

SUBS

Jones-Solid for a debut 6.5
Pseudo Tommy Knarvik-MOTM 10

According to the police at the train station there was one arrest (a Pompy fan) though 30 Leeds fans were taken on the train back to London as they had travelled with out tickets.

All in all a good display, and hopfully a certain bloke will be returning. Now where is that brown envelope?

A view through the onion bag - Mike Sewell

It takes a long time to get to Portsmouth from anywhere but Southampton. No wonder they hate each other, they probably never travel North of Winchester. The Connaught was full but good, another success to the Beermeister of Amsterdam.

The ground is really a dump in the middle of a dump. Reminds you of how much progress has been made in improving facilities for fans in the Premiership. Shame that the Pomponians in their nice, ruinously expensive, enclosed end haven't twigged yet that their visitors do sing but that concerted chants don't take off in the open air. Pompey Chimes, arncha just sick of them?

As to the game, we did well with the 2nd XI out. Harte isn't a right back and was shown up in the build up to their goal, but Halle should have tracked back with the play to double team the runner and then the CBs wouldn't have been drawn out of position. We looked much better with Harte back on the left after half time. Better again when Korsten went off - the game seemed too quick for him. Even when they scored I remained confident. We looked dangerous every time we ran at their defence and whenever we got a corner or free kick. The finishing was decent, so we trotted out worthy winners without ever really having to shine. Passing and movement was good, esp. down the left in the second half. Wijnhard took his goal very well, as did Kewell. Major deflection on Ribeiro's, we know 'cos we were right behind the line of the shot after it bounced off Awford. Jimmy worked very hard for the team, though Clyde's look could have killed when he shot rather than squaring the ball and sent it round the post.

Nigel Martyn is a very big bloke and gets in the way if you are behind his net at pitch level and want to see what is going on at the other end. The Steward declined to ask him to sit down. Claridge deserves credit for his willingness to enter into banter with those giving him stick. I thought his gesture was meant to indicate that some of those singing 'you fat bastard' were pots calling the kettle black. Great view of Harte's free kick from where we were, and nice to be so close to the action in the second half. Horrible sight during MOTD though. When one of theirs chested the ball down just wide of our near post in the first half, I turned to Claire and adopted with one of those stupid, sticking out the tongue sort of expressions of relief. Not nice when the slo-mo showed a full frontal Sewell tongue. Just as well it was after the watershed.

Half time was a right laugh as the subs - "We had the babies looking after the younger babies" DOL - amused themselves kicking the ball into the crowd and grinning at anti-GG chants. Robinson also made sure that one of the police dogs was kept straining at its leash while watching footballs sail past it.

K-narvik and Jones did well enough, the latter after his nerves settled. Nice touches from both, and good to see we do have some right footed players coming through. Post game we avoided the ruck by going down a side street where we came across a very friendly and beautiful cat, suitably all white.

Next round - there seems to be an underlying assumption that it will be Tottingham. I wonder. No news on TV coverage on the website, just that the Villa game looks like being the following Wednesday. Were I a TV mogul (fat chance) I'm not sure I'd risk having the Wombles on. Newcy v Blackburn (Shearer and all that) will surely be one of them, maybe Scum v Keegan too. Then there's Sheff Weds v Chelsea or Oxford (Carbone v Zola). So maybe we won't be on. If it is Spurs, I'd vote for 'Thankyou very much for talking Graham' as my preferred chant.

So we are starting to look like we have quality in depth, the pundits are raving about the quality of our play, the results are by and large good, perhaps better than we have come to expect in recent years. The downside, the List suffers. GG and Wilko were much better for it. Now no flame wars, just recurrent 'famous fans' threads, the Manchester Olympics thing, and Voicey reduced to spotting songs on the soundtrack of the awfulness that has ruined Goathland and reduced that part of N Yorks to being 'Heartbeat country.' What's the best curry that Listers have ever eaten, I ask myself? So just to restore order, on Saturday we had four players signed by GG, one of whom Wilko was about to buy when he was sacked. One of the four went off at HT, another in the second half. We played well, scored goals, and benefitted from the youth policy that Wilko established and that GG ignored/held back/badmouthed. Discuss.

Mike, who wouldn't want to do it every week, but who quite enjoyed the view through the netting.

False start as goals rain in

Copy from Football Unlimited of 24/01/1999.

Thankfully, hope springs eternal in football, especially in the FA Cup, but reality bites from time to time, too. Beleaguered Portsmouth, apparently 10 days from folding, were looking for a lift from the Cup against a depleted Leeds United but there was still too much Premiership class about for them.

It came from all angles as well. A Nightingale sang - Luke of that surname - to give Pompey an early lead, but thereafter five different players found Allan Knight's net and a fast-developing Leeds were comfortably through to the fifth round.

© Guardian Media Group plc

O'Leary gives youth its fling - Jon Brodkin

Copy from Football Unlimited of 24/01/1999.

Only one event in the rejuvenation of Leeds United seems more significant than the arrival of George Graham in September 1996. It was the day he departed three months ago.

Gone, faster than you can say Jimmy Floyd Hassellbaink, was the trademark caution and the reluctance to experiment with youth. Probably only Graham could have hauled Leeds from relegation candidates into Europe inside two years. But surely only in his absence could they have produced a performance as impressive as this.

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